tax credit overpayments new report published

rosie_mummy

A bit of advice for you all.
Whenever you contact the tax credit office for any reason, Make a note on it, Who you spoke to, What they told you, what you told them etc.

I had an overpayment for 2007/08 of £2000, this went up to £3000, down to £1500 and back up to £3500. I spoke to them on many occasions to find out why and they eventually said that it was because i had given false information. So they advise me to fill X form in and a dispute would be raised.
Along side this form i wrote a detailed letter regarding phone calls i had made to them regarding change of information, The loss of one job and then going back to work 3 days later for a new company, I was even spot on with my earnings for the year, they were barely a penny out.

I was told they HAD to respond within 10 - 14 days and 3 weeks later i had heard nothing, I rang them again and again to be told it had not been sorted, Then it had been sorted but they couldn't give me the results over the phone, then told a letter had been sent out to me.

I still never recieved a letter so 3 weeks later, Anxious for an answer to find out that yes they had indeed sent the later but to the wrong address, Someone in their office had changed my address to one that i lived at previous to EVER claiming tax credits or in fact any benefit.
Anyway the result of this letter was that they had completely wiped the debt as they could see that i had always given correct information etc.

So to sum it up after my waffling, Note down everything, keep them informed and chase, chase chase! They don't seem to have a clue what they are doing and this whole experience left me very unwell, and that was purely stress related!!

Good luck to those with overpayments, Keep on at them!

dannimaycox

I've been reading through all the previous posts on here and i think it's an absolute disgrace that they can make these mistakes & then expect us to pay them back! Here is our story:

I am 18 years old and i have a terminal illness (have had it since birth). I need 24/7 care and my mum is my full time carer. My mum recieves Income support & carers allowance and i recieve Incapacity & DLA. In 2007 i finished school & continued full time education at college (we informed them of this), then a couple of month into my course, my mum recieved a letter that she was overpaid £2,000 child benefit, she phoned them up and asked what was going on & who ever she spoke to told her not to worry about it as it was their mistake & they continued paying (because i was still in full time education). Everything was fine for 2 years, then all of a sudden, about a month ago she recieved a letter saying that her income support was going down from £150 per week to £40, this was a few weeks after we filled a form in asking us what i was doing now where we stated that i had finished college and was claiming incapacity benefit, then this Monday she recieves a letter saying she has been over paid & owes £14,149.42! :eek: We are going crazy, we are so worried about this, we don't need this added stress, it's making us both ill. We have been in contact with DWP & they are sending out an expenditure form for us to fill in to see how much she can afford to repay, the problem is that we are in a complicated situation to begin with, we live in a shared, rented house with my grandparents (my mums mum & dad) & we both pay my nanna weekly because my nanna takes care of all the bills, since my mums money has been dropped my mum can only afford to pay her £10 a week as we also have to buy food, pay phone bills, broadband etc. and i pay my nanna £20 a week. The thing is, we are also worried because my mum also has 2 loans, which we are paying off, both of them £10 a week, but my nanna doesn't know about this, will we need to include the loans on the expenditure forms? Also, my nanna isn't very happy about all of this and she won't allow her income to be written on the form (her pension) as she says it has nothing to do with her, but the problem is that everybody in the household has to put on their income so i don't know what to do. Also, we've contacted Welfare Rights & they are writing an appeal letter which they will send to us to sign & then we will have to forward it on, welfare rights said that if they do not accept that it was their mistake then we may have to go to a tribunal, what will this involve? Do we have much chance of winning this appeal or will we have to pay back even though it was their mistake? Also, how much will they accept per week? We have no savings & anything more than £5 a week really is going to make us suffer. Please give me some advice, i'm so worried

DX2

dannimaycox wrote: »

I've been reading through all the previous posts on here and i think it's an absolute disgrace that they can make these mistakes & then expect us to pay them back! Here is our story:

I am 18 years old and i have a terminal illness (have had it since birth). I need 24/7 care and my mum is my full time carer. My mum recieves Income support & carers allowance and i recieve Incapacity & DLA. In 2007 i finished school & continued full time education at college (we informed them of this), then a couple of month into my course, my mum recieved a letter that she was overpaid £2,000 child benefit, she phoned them up and asked what was going on & who ever she spoke to told her not to worry about it as it was their mistake & they continued paying (because i was still in full time education). Everything was fine for 2 years, then all of a sudden, about a month ago she recieved a letter saying that her income support was going down from £150 per week to £40, this was a few weeks after we filled a form in asking us what i was doing now where we stated that i had finished college and was claiming incapacity benefit, then this Monday she recieves a letter saying she has been over paid & owes £14,149.42! :eek: We are going crazy, we are so worried about this, we don't need this added stress, it's making us both ill. We have been in contact with DWP & they are sending out an expenditure form for us to fill in to see how much she can afford to repay, the problem is that we are in a complicated situation to begin with, we live in a shared, rented house with my grandparents (my mums mum & dad) & we both pay my nanna weekly because my nanna takes care of all the bills, since my mums money has been dropped my mum can only afford to pay her £10 a week as we also have to buy food, pay phone bills, broadband etc. and i pay my nanna £20 a week. The thing is, we are also worried because my mum also has 2 loans, which we are paying off, both of them £10 a week, but my nanna doesn't know about this, will we need to include the loans on the expenditure forms? Also, my nanna isn't very happy about all of this and she won't allow her income to be written on the form (her pension) as she says it has nothing to do with her, but the problem is that everybody in the household has to put on their income so i don't know what to do. Also, we've contacted Welfare Rights & they are writing an appeal letter which they will send to us to sign & then we will have to forward it on, welfare rights said that if they do not accept that it was their mistake then we may have to go to a tribunal, what will this involve? Do we have much chance of winning this appeal or will we have to pay back even though it was their mistake? Also, how much will they accept per week? We have no savings & anything more than £5 a week really is going to make us suffer. Please give me some advice, i'm so worried

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2051219&highlight=

dannimaycox

Still not recieved expenditure form which was supposed to have been sent out on Monday & still waiting for appeal letter to arrive from Welfare Rights :-/

DX2

dannimaycox wrote: »

Still not recieved expenditure form which was supposed to have been sent out on Monday & still waiting for appeal letter to arrive from Welfare Rights :-/

Would it not be easier to keep all the Info on the thread that you originally started. People are trying to help you.

dannimaycox

My other thread has been closed, i don't understand why?

DX2

dannimaycox wrote: »

My other thread has been closed, i don't understand why?

A troll started to become abusive in it.

Edit to add: Can I ask did your mum get child tax credits? Sadly since the thread has been locked I can't reply to another poster.

dannimaycox

No, just child benefit and income support, i think the problem is that they didn't change our details so they've over paid, even though we did tell them of all changes in circumstance we don't have any proof as it was all said over the phone so we have no paper work. Can she really go to jail for this like some are saying? I could understand it if it was done on purpose but it was a total accident. If she has to pay back then she will but she can't afford any more than £5 a week, will that be acceptable? Thanks for your help

DX2

dannimaycox wrote: »

No, just child benefit and income support, i think the problem is that they didn't change our details so they've over paid, even though we did tell them of all changes in circumstance we don't have any proof as it was all said over the phone so we have no paper work. Can she really go to jail for this like some are saying? I could understand it if it was done on purpose but it was a total accident. If she has to pay back then she will but she can't afford any more than £5 a week, will that be acceptable? Thanks for your help

Ah great I think this is where the confusion seems to be coming from on my behalf. I expect everyone to be on child tax credits :rotfl:and it's obvious that not everyone got switched over.
Edit to add: ignore the troll he is just doing it to get a reaction from you. She won't go to jail

dannimaycox

Thanks, i can't help but worry about this, i just hope that they will accept that we cant afford to pay much back per week. It's probably going to take over 100 years to pay back, they must know that they will never get the full amount back, am i right?