tax credit overpayments new report published

keeley_n_dean

thanks i just posted it to that site thanks for your help

whitevanwoman

keeley_n_dean wrote: »

thank you i just posted it on that site too thanks for your help

Well done, I've emailed them asking them to look out for your post. They are all volunteers and may be at work during the day so it may be this evening or tomorrow before someone is able to respond. In the meantime, have a look through their website and forum, particularly at the success stories in the forum so that you will see that it is possible to get things sorted and this will give you some hope.

Don't let this get you down - one of the biggest problems with the tax credit system is the lack of flexibility to take into account people's changing circumstances. I work in a seasonal job and am also self-employed so my finances vary and I have had no end of problems as the system can't react to changing circumstances as quickly as it needs to.

It might help if you gather together all the paperwork you have ever had from Tax Credits, put it in date order and try to make a summary of what has happened on a separate sheet, with dates, payment amounts, overpayment amounts etc, that you can email through to TaxCC. This will help them to follow what has been going on and by doing this it might make things a bit clearer for you too.

keeley_n_dean

hi just wondered if i posted the info on the right page as there has been 21 people view it but no replies as yet cheers familytaxcredit.forumco.com/forum~FORUM_ID~19.asp

whitevanwoman

keeley_n_dean wrote: »

hi just wondered if i posted the info on the right page as there has been 21 people view it but no replies as yet cheers familytaxcredit.forumco.com/forum~FORUM_ID~19.asp

Hi Keeley

I've emailed TaxCC again, but like I said earlier, they are all volunteers with families, jobs and overpayments of their own to sort out (there are only 5 main members who between them manage the campaign to write off unfair overpayments, provide advice and guidance with individual cases, run the website, research information, work with MPs and the press, aswell as trying to respond to forum posts, and about another 5 or 6 people who are regular forum members who help out with questions and problems on the TaxCC forum) at TaxCC, but I am sure that as soon as someone has some spare time, they will do what they can to help. Don't forget that at this time of year people are on holiday.

However, you will need to do what you can yourself to help them to help you. Have you been able to sort through your paperwork? This will make it much easier for the people at TaxCC to understand what has been happening when someone looks at your case. You also need to have had a look at the How to dispute steps on their website as you will need to understand the process and each step that you will have to go through to try to understand how your overpayment has happened and to get your overpayment written off. In the meantime, I suggest you have a look at the section in the How to Dispute section, which deals with SARN - that means applying for copies of all information held about you by HMRC including recordings of phone calls. It can take up to 40 days to get that information back from HMRC so the sooner you do that the better. If you are struggling, perhaps a friend or relative could sit down with you and you could do it together. You will probably need this SARN information to understand why the problems have happened and it may provide evidence that the overpayment was due to HMRC's error. It is all very complicated but if you can't afford to repay what HMRC is demanding, you must go through the dispute process, unpleasant as it is.

I'm sure that someone from TaxCC will give you some help as soon as they can.

hheadcase

I have been on taxcc website but can't find the SARN & RR they talk about - do they have templates for the letters to send to tac HMRC? Can't find the 'how to dispute' bit. Do you have to register?

whitevanwoman

Ok. First things first:

The main website is www.taxcc.org - you do not have to register to use the site.

The forum is http://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/ - you will have to register on the forum to be able to post. New members are encouraged to post their problem or query in the New Members thread - from memory this is about half way down the list of topics.


If you look at the left hand side of the screen on the main webiste (www.taxcc.org) there is a list of links to other pages in boxes. The "How to dispute" section is the 8th box down, but here is a direct link http://www.taxcc.org/Dispute_1st_things_1st.html

Read through that page so that you start to get a clear idea of what you are going to have to do and then click Next at the bottom of the page.

At the top of that page it says Dispute - Step 1. Read that page and in the first sentence you will see a link to the RRR form which is also known as a TC846 form or a Dispute form.

Read through the rest of that page and you will see links to various template letters.

At the bottom of that page click Next which will take you to Dispute - Step 2. Read through that page. In the first paragraph you will see a link to Subject Access Request which opens a new window explaining what SAR is, and a link to a template letter.

There is alot of info to take in and you might find your head is a bit battered after reading it all through but once you have submitted a Dispute form and a SAR request, you can sit back for a few weeks and go through the rest of the steps and information gradually.

I would suggest that you get a ring binder and start keeping a record of everything you do - phone calls, sending letters, submitting forms etc - date, time, what you did. KEEP COPIES OF EVERYTHING YOU SEND AND SEND ALL LETTERS RECORDED SIGNED FOR. Keep all posting receipts and make a note of all expenses this is costing you as you will be able to claim those back if you win your case.

Sort through all your paperwork and put it in the file in date order. Not only could this be used as proof for your case, it will also help you remember where you are at.

I hope this helps.

hheadcase

Thank you for the information :beer:

tazminator3

Keep at 'em! I say!:mad: It's took me nearly 6 YEARS to get them to finally admit that THEY were WRONG and I was RIGHT!!!:cool: In 2002 I claimed for me and my soon to be ex-wife. We filled in the forms and posted them off. I contacted the T/C and explained that we were in the throw's of a divorce and not living together at that mo. He told me that we didn't qualify as we weren't living together at the same address. I immediately cancelled the claim and was notified via their standard letter that we were in effect, entitled to nothing and that was that basically. Or so we thought......My original claim ran out e/o Jan '03 and I had met someone else and she moved in in the Feb of '03. We inserted a fresh claim and that's when the brown stuff hit the fan!!:eek: According to T/C, I already had a claim in-situ between me n my ex. After long laboured arguements over the phone/letters, visits to my local Tax Office (Got these to sort out the claim as T/C were bl***y useless!), we saw a light at the end of a 5 month trek. But it came to bite us 2 months later when myself and my ex received a letter each saying we owed T/C £1,755.43 in a overpayment for the claim (between myself n my ex) I'd cancelled before it really started!! After some detective work I'd found the Tax Office employee had taken monies paid as emergency giro's for my new claim with my current partner, from the "null n void" claim that I'd cancelled but they hadn't! 6 years later, numerous calls, letters, COPS-1 forms, local paper & local MP, I got someone on the line who could actually see through their rose-tinted specs and see that it wasn't my fault. He sent me the correct forms to appeal and I got a letter through the post saying my appeal was successful!.........But there was a catch! I only got a refund of £1,300 and they are now stating that I owed them £455 for o/p on childcare for this year of which, this has been recouped via the £455 defecit! I'm now in a fight again as we ALWAYS inform them of ANY changes and they WERE notified of the childcare arrangements (cancelled) and they adjusted my partners entitlement accordingly by nearly £40pwk.

So it's a case of, WATCH THIS SPACE!!

It was stated on National TV on Tonight With Trevor Mc Donald by a T/C high raki that, and I quote: "If we've made the mistake (T/C), we have to carry the can. But if you've made the mistake (Claimant), you have to pay us back" In my case it was my local Tax Office as I couldn't sort it out and they took the emergency monies from a null n void claim. So I couldn't of made the mistake could I?

Ian.

carlyburton

Hi, I was overpaid right back in 2002/2003.
I called Tax Credits to inform them of my new hours and wages after going part time due to my new baby, I never even mentioned my husband during the whole conversation but they deleted his wages out of the computer system.
My payment went up as I thought it would but it turned out they had massively overpaid me due to re moving my Husbands wages from the computer. When they checked thay had him down as working 50 hrs per week for nothing!!!!
I argued that it was there fault and even went to appeal but got nothing. We still receive no Tax credits as we are still paying them off!!!!:eek:

Ameline

Tax credits are not credits they are government loans. You always have to pay the money back, whether you are redundant, on a low income, it doesn't matter. Mine will take longer than my lifetime to repay and then I suppose the government will take any remaining "debt" out of my estate. I have been on PAYE since 1967 and have managed to stay out of debt, until something called "Working Tax Credits". On PAYE, if any tax is owing it is repaid by the government to the individual. Now, due to so called "overpayments" by the government, I am in considerable "debt". It is not the answer to stop receiving the "credits" because I still owe lots of money, but the government will stop paying me the "credits" which I need to repay them some of the money I apparently owe! I was redundant without any compensation and didn't claim any unemployment benefit, I just did every job I could from cleaning to apple picking!
Remember - think of it as a loan and make arrangements to pay it back.