tax credit overpayments new report published

shebanjoed

Hi

I started part-time work in Feb after having my daughter and found that as soon as I informed Tax Credits I would be earning £10k a year they wrote and said I had been overpaid.

Surely this amount should not be taken into account till next year? I am earning £700 a month. They have cancelled my existing payment of £100 a month to nil and my overpayment is £1500.

My point is I haven't earned £10k in fact I was off on maternity leave then was made redundant and had to sign on for a few months so in actual fact my earnings have been about under £2000 this tax year then add on my 2 salaries of £700 as I just started working in February. Is this the way they calculate it?

delboyuk2005uk

Back in 2007 we got our tax rewards which state there was an overpayment in april 2007 of £1097.68. Well that was fair enough, And what it seemed to us was they lowered our payments to £70 a month over this year to reflect them getting money back from us.

Now as I have not been paid anything this month april 08. I rang up to enquire this. Based on what they are telling me is that the overpayment they made they are actually going to claim back now and not what we thought last year.

The guy on the other line seemed half asleep so I never carried on the conversation, but I assumed they was getting this money back over the years by lowering our payments. But not been paid a penny in working & child tax credits for the next 2-3 years we cannot survive on as we budgeted with this income coming in.

Can anybody please give me my girlfreind and my nearly 2 year old baby any advice?

SuziQ

I was told we were overpaid £1108 2003/2004,they backed down after a momentous fight.
The following year 2005/2006 they said we owed £1,400. Another momentous battle.They admitted their mistake and backed down. As they had stopped payments during the appeal,they repaid us the full amount they had stopped in June 2006.
In October 2006/2007 we were told they had overpaid as we hadn't returned our forms in time. Not only had we returned the forms,but we had been on the phone sveral times around the time the form was due and no-one said it was outstanding.They are claiming not only the full years CTC,but also seem to have added the money we were refunded in June 2006. I have asked repeatedly for a print out showing how they have reached the overpayment figure,to no avail.
We have had repeated Pre-court letters demanding payment even though the appeal is ongoing. As it was dragging on,someone in the dept that decides the appeals outcome suggested we get our MP to make contact via the hotline. All tis generated was a letter promising a decision by 26th Dec (odd date to choose!) and a letter in November saying that they 'had never said I hadn't sent the forms back-only that we didn't recieve them.' And 'we accept that Mrs * was entitled to this money,and that there is therefore no loss to public purse per se,however when we didn't recieve the completed documentation to substantiate the claim,she was no longer entitled to the money.' She also states that their staff are only trained to deal with requests. They would only have known that they hadn't recieved the forms if I had told them. Without special delivery or recorded delivery,how would I know? Her final comment was I shold have given the info over the phone.

I WOULD HAVE DONE IF I WAS ASKED FOR IT!AARGH!

I have been told I am 99.9% likely to have to repay the money,altough I haven't recieved an actual decision letter yet. And it has to be paid in full,not out of present awrds,as that years claim was closed when they didn't get the forms.On top of this,my marriage has broken up,our business failed and I have just applied for Income support. How they expect me to find a lump sum of over £3,000 I don't knw and really feel it is unfair given I was in contact with them throughout and was not told that the forms were never recieved until months after they were due and our claim closed.

savvy

savvy wrote: »

For anybody who hasn't yet posted their case study etc on the Tax Credit Casualty Forum, they are looking to collate 'horror' stories to use as evidence at a Government meeting, and are looking for anyone that can assist in their fight against the unfair system. Please read the following;



Have you got a Tax Credit Horror Story of your own that you are happy to share with others affected, and with MPs and the media, as part of a booklet being produced now?

Representatives (all themselves victims and volunteers) from Tax Credit Casualties will be presenting this booklet in Westminster in the next few weeks, and telling the press and our elected representatives exactly what we think of this system (date soon to be announced). All we need from you is your story and comments, a first and last name, and where you are from, eg. Fred Wilkinson, Kent. Whether a paragraph or a page, we want to hear from you!

Some politicians are denying that there are any significant problems with the current tax credit system, and we want to prove otherwise, using real stories, real people, and your own words. If you would like to contribute and help get this oppressive, punitive system changed for the better, please send your story to Horror@TaxCC.org.

Thank you!
Ali Myers-Ward.

Further to this;

[FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]Just to let you know that The Tax Credit Casualties have the Westminster meeting booked with various cross-party politicians and the national media. It will be at [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]Portcullis House, Westminster, on 9th June from 3pm onwards. [/FONT]

emweaver

Ive just rang to do my annual renewal. I was told payments are based on the previous yrs income as long as you wont be earning more than £25000 more for the current tax year. They said when you do your renewal next yr this would mean you wont of been overpaid either. It was introduced in April. So ppl may still have overpayments this yr but shoudlnt in future

Polly28_2

Desipte having informed them of all changes from 2005 (we had a breif change in 2004 which we were late in informing them and we understand that we were overpaid then at our fault) we owed them £13,000 in Jan 2008, now after complaining twice we are down to £8,500. I have only just recieved a detailed letter of all we owe ~ from 2004!! Despite having been paid two lump sums since then !!!

Has anyone got the address of the data controller so I can request all of our details? Will they send you telephone transcripts, as the majority of our overpayment is due to them putting down that DH was not working when it was myself who was not working which I have told them over the phone many times! When I got the renewal pack, surprise surprise they still had DH down as not working.

siren13577

Apparently we got overpaid by £1500 in 2006/2007, I've queried it today because they had us as earning £1700, classed as self employment earnings for my partner, who has never been self employed, he lost his job that year due to illness. We gave his final figures for that year. When I 'phoned them today they said they'd have to order a print out (we did it on the internet) and was told that if it was their fault we'd get it back but if it was our fault we wouldn't because we had up to 31 July 2007 to confirm details. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed this last year and so think this is a bit unfair as they have taken £1500 from us and there's no way of getting it back, is this true? I didn't think there was a limitation on the time you had to claim incorrect tax credits back and particularily as we are out of pocket. Could I appeal this decision if that is the case? The lady said she should find out next week and will write to us with the outcome. Has anyone experienced this?

180

Hi this is the place, where you can find out how to complain, who to complain to, and get those important calls and paperwork from your awards.all FREE of charge.

http://www.taxcc.org./

Marker_2

My overpayment took a year to pay off, but even after that year was up I found they had carried on taking money out of my account anyway. Had I not checked they would still be taking payments out now! Currently trying to claim back the money they wrongfully took off me.

So for anyone who is paying back their overpayments by DD, mkae sure you cancel the direct debit once your time is up cos the "insert word here" people will just carry on taking money!

emweaver

I was overpaid £900 for the 06 - 07 yr and pay 10% out of my weekly payments, so will be years before its cleared but its all i can afford. Just hope weve not been overpaid again, as I completed our actual income for 07-08 last wk.