tax credit overpayments new report published

alexcross

This is becoming a joke! went to see loan parent advisor at local job centre today. He phoned them to see where the overpayment was made and was told it was because I had not informed them in time that I had stopped working! He said well I know you are lying now because I informed you the day after she informed you and it was well within the four week run-on allowed. They then refused point blank to discuss the case any further with him. He came off the phone and turned to me and said " your right they are p****ng you about"! I now have to go to the CAB and get my local MP on board they are taking this money ileagaly from me and causing a great deal of stress and hardship and yet this is made much harder by the very fact that I have a disabled child to care for but......how many other people have they done this and got away with it.....they have managed to bambozzel me with facts and figures that simply do not exist every single time I have called them.....it makes me sick to think they are doing this to me and god only knows how many others!!!!!! it is time we took a stand they are no better at dealing with their claiments than the CSA!! this is wrong so wrong!

jknowles

Hi folk,
I've just had a letter from HMRC about tax credit overpayments for 2009/2010. Dread to think how much it's going to be considering I'm still paying for an overpayment in 2006/2007 which I don't even know how it occured and was told that under a certain Act and Section (can't think which one) I wasn't allowed to appeal!

Anyway I was wondering if anybody could throw any light on a question I have please, can't find the answer anywhere. I'm a single parent to my 7 year old daughter and claim both working and child tax credits and pay for a childminder. However, I work within school times and wondered if I'm entitled to the child tax element part to pay my childminder or if they will say to me that I don't need a childminder because I work whilst she's at school (which I suppose I can see there point). If this is the case, I think my overpayment is going to be horrendeous :eek:

A very worried Jo

alexcross

did your letter say under the regulation 98 act of tax credits 2002 you could not appeal? if it did I am informed by a case worker for my local MP that to state that you can not appeal is first of all "twaddle" and second illeagal because basically what they are saying in this letter is that it doesn't matter if your not at fault and it was THEIR fault the overpayment was made, they still expect you to pay it back.
do not take any notice of these letters. what gets me is how many other parents have had these letters and given up hope when it wasnt their fault.
I am told an overpayment is made if you do not inform them of a change of circumstances within a time limit. it also is made when you supply incorrect information. They have assured me that an overpayment CAN NOT occurr in any other way...however in my case when anyone looks at my records there is no reason at all for the over payment so they make one up......this is why I have had 7 different reasons to date because they simply do not know.
I have now got my local MP involved because they have ignored every letter i have sent then they sent this can not appeal letter which I handed to my case worker who now has evidence of dodgy goings on within the tax cred office. He fully intends to take this to the highest places (and media) as he says it is disgraceful that they can do this to already hard up families so wish me luck.
and good luck with yours don't give up and just accept it if you know you give the correct information and within the time limits.
always ask for a written break-down of when how and how much the overpayment was...they have to provide this by law!!!

alexcross

Today i got the results of my "dispute" back.......they say i have been overpaid and I must pay it back. the reason given this time is.....wait for it.......In January 2010 when i gave up working to look after my disabled Son....They sent me an award notice telling me I was no longer entitled to working tax credit....so far right......however they claim to have told me that i would continue to receive the higher payment of child tax. the overpayment has happened because i did not phone them and tell them I did not want to be paid the higher rate of child tax credits!
First of all I am entitled to the maximum that I am entitled to and no more and no less what the hell are they on about???? So basically they are saying they paid me too much because they felt sorry for me?????
I really can not believe the excuses they are coming up with now. they obviously know they have made a big mistake but dont want to admit it. plus at that time I was getting an award notice every other day from them saying i owed different amounts even up to £3000 which funny enough went back down to £1000.
Is anyone else getting this kind of treatment from tax credits????

savvy

alexcross wrote: »

it is time we took a stand they are no better at dealing with their claiments than the CSA!! this is wrong so wrong!

You CAN take a stand.................alongwith all the others that are doing the EXACT same thing at www.taxcc.org the bigger the collective the stronger the power ;);)

That goes for all of you with these problems, I can not stress enough how you will not get the level of help you need here - go THERE!!!

dmg24

savvy wrote: »

You CAN take a stand.................alongwith all the others that are doing the EXACT same thing at www.taxcc.org the bigger the collective the stronger the power ;);)

That goes for all of you with these problems, I can not stress enough how you will not get the level of help you need here - go THERE!!!

How rude!

There are some extremely knowledgeable people on this site. If people start individual threads they will get the information and support they need.

savvy

dmg24 wrote: »

How rude!

There are some extremely knowledgeable people on this site. If people start individual threads they will get the information and support they need.

That's not what I meant and you know it!

hallsa

Hi

Sorry if this has been asked a dozen times already, I'm new on here!

I was claiming Working Tax Credit for a year to supplement my low income. At the end of the year they asked me to re-apply which I did (my circumstances had not changed at all during this period). They continued to pay me for the 3 months it took them to assess my application then they finally sent me a letter saying I was no longer entitled to the Tax Credit and I had to repay around £800 for the 3 months they had paid me while processing my claim.

My question is do I need to pay this back, what I read on here says I do if it's my fault - which I fail to see how this is but I honestly don't know what my rights are here. Recently they have sent me a reminder letter (I have 'owed' them this money since the end of the 2008-2009 tax year).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

alexcross

Hallsa if you feel like this overpayment was made because of a mistake they made rather than you either not informing them in time of a change or something else contact your local MP. Did they send you the information of where and when this overpayment was made? if not u need to ask for it and if you really feel it was their fault you have to write a letter "disputing" the overpayment.

I have good news I got a letter yesterday saying that they agree I was on numerous occasions given the wrong information they also admitted that after listening to their recordings of my calls that staff were on occasions very rude and caused me much distress.
They have said that i no longer have to pay the overpayment and they will return money already paid to the overpayment! Result!!!
I am a bit annoyed that I will not be getting the nearly £2000 that is owed to me because of their "accountancy" problems but hey small price to pay to get them off my back for an overpayment that never happened.
It has infuriated me though to be on the receiving end of an overpayment that never happened and I have to wonder how many other people out there who have been accused of having an overpayment (when they haven't) and just paid it either because they didn't know it was wrong or have been so confused (like I was) with reams of awards, at one point i received 5 awards letters in a week all saying I owed different amounts which started at £400 and within days had jumped to over £3000.
what I will say to anyone who is going through this is to stick to your guns. when you contact them always get the name of the person you are talking to, note the date and time and note what was said during the conversation if you are ever spoken to in a nasty manner write a complaint letter.
if you have tried everything and think there is no more you can do contact your local MP. If it had not been for my local MP I would have been stuck paying this "overpayment" back because the Tax Credit office were not taking any notice of my letters or disputes.
hang on in there if you know your right then fight for it. xx gl all xx

sutty79

Hi.

I wonder if you can advise me on if I am doing the right thing here with regards to where I go next. Please be aware that I am maybe a little pre-emptive:

Anyway, We have been recieving CTC since 2003. My wife finished university a few weeks back, I promptly rang and told the the she had finished, they then informed me that nothing would change as they already has her down as not working any hours. We breifly discussed my 2 year old may be going to nursery soon and wether she would qualify for childcare, the advisor responded by saying it is impossible for us to get childcare whilst we have one adult working less than 16 hours - as I have always been aware.

About a week later, I got curious as to how it was worked out, so I dug out the last document we got from them and opened. To my concern, I noticed that we had been recieving Childcare element for 2 children (Approx £2000 per year), yet they haven't been in childcare. I informed HMRC 4 years ago about my wife being not working, and every year have declared her as having £0 income.

I accept that it is through my negligence for not properly checking every year, simply declaring that no information had changed and that my salary was X. (as far as I was aware, nothing had changed since I last notified them of a change). I promptly rang the TC helpline and informed them of the error and asked why this was possible if they had my wife down as qorking zero hours??

Well to my horror they told me they had me down as being disabled. in fact, they had us both down as disabled. Well, I have never been incapictated and have never knowing told them that. They said the marker was down since 18.10.2004. IF my memory serves me right too, about 5 years ago, I did notice that it stated I "claimed childcare because I was incapacitated, in prision..." on one of my letters I got from them, but I queried this with them over the phone and they told me it was "nothing to worry about and appeared on all chilcare details".

Here is the more worrying bit, I have just found out that I now owe about £4500, for 09/10 (£2000 in childcare and £2500 in addition CTC benefit). I knew the childcare would need repaying, but knew nothing about 'addition CTC payments. Even more worrying, this does not take into to consideration the past years that they may have overpaid me, and worry that this could be in excess of £15,000 !!!! And to top it all off, I worry even more that they are going to do me for fraud.

I rang them yeaterday to confirm the overpayment amount. They told me about £4500 for 09/10. I asked them if that included previous years overpayments and they told me that there was no overpayment for 08/09 or 07/08 etc. But there should be shouldn;t there?

I am 100% certain that I have never told them I am disabled. In fact, the date the marker was put down, was infact the date I started work after finishing Uni myself (I think). I am certain I informed them that my wife finished work in 2006 to start university.

I have just sent of a Subject Access Request to gain access to everything I have ever sent them. I will be disputing the fact that they gave me more CTC because they though i was disabled, and that I shouldn't have to pay this back (How was I ever supposed to know they'd factored this in to our CTC?). I will however hold my hands up for the 4 years of childcare collection through negligently not checking my renewals properly.

My questions are this:

Has anyone else ever had this type of experience (regarding being recorded as incapcitated)?
Is it likely that they have yet to have worked out previous years overpayments because of some reason?
Is £15,000 overpayment (over 6 years) anything out of the ordinary?
Is it likely that I can dispute 'half' of an overpayment amount on the basis of above?
What is likelihood of me being investigated for fraud, even though I brought it to their attention and me never actually saying i'm disabled?

I hope somebody can advise.

Many Thanks

sutty79.