tax credit overpayments new report published

creamtea_2

http://www.taxcreditoverpayment.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/2.html

the above is brilliant support:j

Moonlight1971

Hi I don't know if anyone has any advice but we are really worried.

Last year my partner was in and out of various minimum wage jobs and I was pregnant and off work sick with pregnancy related problems. We started getting tax credits last summer (hadn't applied for them before) and we gave them my partner's wage as £11,700.

Later that year my partner was only bringing home £120 per week from his job (hours had been cut) and we were advised by a family member to tell the Tax Credits this. Which we did. The woman I spoke to said that she re-calculated his salary as £6760.00 and put the adjustment through.

Shortly afterwards we received a cheque for £895 and a notice to say our working tax credits would now be £70 per week! This was on top of our child tax credit at £54 per week.

Imagine my shock then when my other half received his P60 to see that his earnings had actually been £9438 for the year - he had been on higher earnings at the start of the year but his hours had been cut down later in the year causing a reduction of income.

We told Tax Credits and filled oin the reveiew form - when i spoke to them on the phone they said that there would be an overpayment but it would have to be worked out by the computer and we'd hear from them shortly,

We haven't heard anything yet and they are still paying up £70 per week WTC and £54 per week CTC.

Today I called them to say that my partner has changed jobs. The woman on the other end of the phone started asking for additional information for our review and asked me about my salary last year. I told her that I'd been on Statutory Sick Pay from April until August, then I left my job and received nothing for 4 weeks (denied Incapacity Benefit because I worked part time in 2003 so "hadn't paid enough stamps for that year") and then Maternity Allowance from September 2006 until March this year.

She claimed that they had not been informed of my "Statutory Sick Pay" income from Apr - August 2006 and would need that information now. This is rubbish as when we applied for Tax Credits I told them I was employed but currently not actually working as I was on long term sickness and the person I spoke to said that SSP wasn't counted as taxable earnings.

I wasn't sure the exact figure but gave her the estimate of 18 weeks @ £72 per week. she said that would put our income for last year up by another £1000 + which would add to the overpayment. ie we'd now be registered as havig an income of close to £11,000 for last year and they had only got us down as havig an income of £6760.

When I asked what would happen she said that our payments of WTC and CTC would probably stop to make up the overpayment but she could give no further information and I'd have to wait for the results of the annual reveiw to come through.

I am terrified - my other half is on a very low wage, we have a mortgage to pay, I'm not currently working and without our tax credits will will not be able to live!!!!

I've worked out that we should have been entitled to around £30 per week and they've paid us £70 per week for all of last year. Could they not just deduct £40 per week from our WTC and leave us with our CTC? I don't know what to do and am so afraid of what is going to happen.

betandjon

Hi,Just an update of something that happened to me this year regarding WTC .As i am self employed working 30 hours, i am never sure as what figure to report to WTC as i am in sales and business is up and down .so i reported £12,000 for 05/06 but by the time my books went to my accountant my figure after expenses was lower than the figure i had told them (£7,600)
After informing tax credits they paid me back the difference backdated for 3 months,i wasn't happy because i thought there was a flaw in the system as being self employed i never know my true figure until my accountant tells me so i appealed on that basis and they agreed and backdated for the whole 12 months (£1,800) hope this helps ohn.

Squeekyclean

Hi everyone

After successfully reclaiming bank charges of approx £6000 it is time to turn my attention to going head to head with the tax office.

I've read most of the posts on this forum and all say the same thing, HELP

My stategy, be prepared.

I have already appealled against the overpayment, had it rejected and thought I could not appeal the decision, so I will appeal again.

I phoned the so called helpline and requested copies of all the forms I have sent to them since tax credits started, I also intend to call for copies or transcripts of any coversations with them because these are times I called to ask if the payment was correct.

You can all see where I'm going with this, right.

How many times do people call up these places only to be fobbed off because a call centre worker has all the information in front of them on a computer screen.

I feel if I can prove that I have kept them informed and even called to check the payments were correct that it is totally their fault if they pay too much and that the overpayment should be written off.

I will also involve anyone willing to listen, my MP, the local CAB, my tropical fish if I think it will make a difference.

The amount overpaid is said to be just under £6000 over two years, If I didn't know better I would think that the bank and the tax man were in this together to get back the charges I reclaimed.

Good luck to everyone trying to get these overpayments written off and don't give up.

creamtea_2

[EMAIL="Money@mirror.co.uk"]mailto:Money@mirror.co.uk[/EMAIL]

any one who is stuck in the tax credit fiasco due to admin errors let the Mail know please!!

trixybess

Childrens tax credits what a joke I also let them know by phone every renewal with our p60's and I also asked them would I have to ring them weekly to tell them how much overtime we would be doing (as overtime varied each week sometimes got it sometimes not) and their answer was no it will all be right when we renew it with end of year with our p60's. Well after being told that we renewed and have been told we owe them and instead of taking it of us they are just not paying us anything for 3 years! Put a dispute in and they said that "they had no record of someone telling me that I didn't have to ring them weekly to say how much overtime me and hubby had done"!! But what makes me laugh is that if I left work then I would recieve £67 a week and if I stayed at work and kicked hubby out I would get over £100.00 and other benefits so my theory is those who both mum and dad work do not get much help with benefits ect and if you have a mortgage. but if i rented i would get housing benefit so I guess England is a great place to live NOT!

wendykearney

Got 3 letters through post today...

One saying our tax credits have stopped because i haven't returned renewal Pack( yes i have) and that total monies outstanding for previous years is £211...and can we pay it please

2nd one saying final award for 2005/2006 we owe altogether with previous yeas £191 total


3rd letter from recover y stating a figure of £3500!

So i got on phone to recovery centre who said ring help line as they say we owe even more than that, so i did, after ages on the phone the helpful chappie said system says only 211 outstanding in total to this date. unable to explain differnece but says we have had payments reduced to pay off previous money. This is what is said on previous awards..

says he will put that i dispute it on file but advises go to local tax office... before i go i ring recovery to say amount disputed, quey some fingers she has with what just got off helpline,, no 2 match..

Go to tax office, they have no computer (!) but looking through my paperwork agree that it states clearly that total money owed is £211.. then another worker comes in and says that its far to complicated for them to look at and i should write a letter asking for the amounts again..


So if the helpline and office both say i only owe "11 where do the recovery get almost £6ooo in total from? Also according to recovery i got £24 a week last year - i never received a penny, backed up by the bank.
How do i sort this?

wendy

Ruthie777

First time writing on here . Just back from a camping holiday, single parent with two kids to find three separate letters saying I owe a total of almost £6000 from way back in 04 . I had written to them when I realised they thought one of my children was severely disabled and payments were then stopped . I did not apply this year as I thought it was going to be a load of hassel and that I would only be entitled to the minimum as I work full time and have annualised my hours to cover all the school holidays now but now receive a statement for saying I owe almost £700 for the year just gone. Who can I go to sort this out. Being single bringing up teenagers and juggling everthing on your own is hard enough without more complications.

minxy6480

I am in similar situation, I was initially told I owed over £6000 for year 2003-04, I than received tax credits for 2004-05 and no money was deducted to pay this back. Then in 05-06 I received £45 per week after deductions for a separate overpayment for year 04-05. Decided not to claim for 06-07 as too much hassle after receiving a letter to say I now owed £9000+ just received a letter demanding payment before 22/09/07 or enforcement proceedings will begin. Dont know what to do next

janeym8

i had 3 letters saying i owed over £5000 so i called today to arrange repayments to be told there was another £1500 aqdded then another £600 and then i said well why am i still receiving payments if owe sooooooooooooo much ?the guy on the phone ummed and ahhed (sp) then said the payments had been stopped and then added another £500 to the bill.

he asked if i wanted it added to the repayments and i said yeah whet the hell as that was nearly my total wages for the year.he did ask if i was going to have enough money to live on and ,due to my mum dying-not a nice way to get it,i said i did have a small amount of savings.

he said i was now finished with tax credits and i said thank goodness and that i wished he had never heard of him-his reply told me i wasnt the first person to tell him that.

janey xxx







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