tax credit overpayments new report published

gibson123

It seems that the treasury can do anything. I received tax credits from when they started until 2004. In this time I was promoted 6 times and received several substantial rises in income (from £160 per week to £30k per annum). I told the revenue service every change in my circumstances and my tax credits were reduced accordingly. I was given a total overpayment calculation of over £4,000, yes over £4,000. I appealed this sum and got it reviewed to £4,400, appealed again and got this sum to £4,650, decided probably best to stop there. For the past 2 years my tax code has been reduced to 200L, that is just £2,000 before tax. I have also have the Child Tax element withheld, therfore I get less than nothing. Deductions from my pay are over £500 every month. I am still paying child care and my expenses have not changed. It is absolutely ridiculous. I do not want something for nothing, I have worked very hard to ensure bring my income above the need for benefits. Most recently I threatened legal action and miraculously I have been told that my debt will be re-paid in full by April 2006 and I will have my personal allowance and child tax credit allowance restored. I believe that I have paid back far too much to these charlatans, but I am too exhausted and too thankful to get my allowances back to do anything about this -does anyone else believe that the 2 billion pound recovery will be from those hard working mums and dads who have been worn down by this beaurocrarcy. I count myself lucky, I no longer have to deal with these people, good luck to all you who are still battling away.

carlih1

Hi

Today i sent my local MP an email because someone from this board did the same and got further than i have been getting with my compensation requests.

I got a response back from him stating:-

"Many thanks for your email. Sorry to hear about the Tax Credit problem. They're quite the most useless bunch in government. I'll happily follow up your case to get things moving along.

Incidentally, about once a fortnight I send an email about a Welwyn Hatfield campaign that I happen to be working on. These are usually quality of life issues of concern to local residents like us. I've added your email address to the list, but don't hesitate to let me know if you'd un-subscribe at any stage.

I'll write back to you as soon as I have a response from HMRC and in the meantime, if your having trouble sleeping, you can see me giving the head of HMRC a hard time in my Select Committee here:
http://www.shapps.com/pasc/PASC2-tax-credits.html

All the best,
Grant Shapps MP
Welwyn Hatfield"

Thought it was quite funny!!!

Carli

cheepskate_2

yes you can ask to hear tel calls and see paperwork(need to put in writing). The information is not kept in the call centres(where you go to when you call)
If you can proof that you informed them of jsa cont. based and also if you could not have known that you were not getting correct amount it can be overturned. the part you could not know is very ambiguous. i cannot remeber if it states cont. based or I.S based on the award next to your jsa If it does not state either and only states jsa +plus what you would have earned for part of year you were working you may have more of sa chance .The only way this can be sorted is by appeal, the call centre operators can only send out appeal form.

hope it makes sense

alliboy03

hi there, thanks to you lot out there on this web site, I decided to appeal my over payment of a grand! I got the tax credit letter today to say it had all been a big mistake and they were sorry!!they've written the whole thing off.It's well worth appealing, don't give up, if i had done i'd be paying £100 a month now, like they wanted me to.MANY MANY BIG THANK YOU's to you all, and martin (of course) from a frazzled mum in lincolnshire. :money: :beer:

ramonageri

my circumstances changed and as a result my money stopped going into my account.i had to go to the tax office to recieve mannual cheque payments.when my money started going back into my account they payed me the cheque payments again and so delibretly gave me an overpayment.they said their policy is that the money i had as cheque payments would be collected in future tax credit award.so i am fighting with them because basicly they knowngly paid me this money,paid me it again and so knowngly gave me an overpayment which is now reducing my weekly payments.just doesnt make sense.can anyone advise me.ive sent a letter of appeal and although i have gave them all the evidence they need,the preson office say they are still looking for evidence.i have sent them anopther letter stating that they hav delibretly made me have an over-payment.

wisemensay

The staff at the IREC (enquiry centre) should have told you that manual payments would be added onto your award for the year, meaning that you would end up with an overpayment. This is because if there was a problem with your original claim (computer?!?) then they need to fix that problem; if they mess with it some more the situation would get worse! EDS (an american company) recently gave the HMRC £70m in compensation for the computer problems! they cannot therefore change the amount of direct payments that they can pay. This is the way it is always done.

ramonageri wrote:

my circumstances changed and as a result my money stopped going into my account.i had to go to the tax office to recieve mannual cheque payments.when my money started going back into my account they payed me the cheque payments again and so delibretly gave me an overpayment.they said their policy is that the money i had as cheque payments would be collected in future tax credit award.so i am fighting with them because basicly they knowngly paid me this money,paid me it again and so knowngly gave me an overpayment which is now reducing my weekly payments.just doesnt make sense.can anyone advise me.ive sent a letter of appeal and although i have gave them all the evidence they need,the preson office say they are still looking for evidence.i have sent them anopther letter stating that they hav delibretly made me have an over-payment

aussielle

DazzerG wrote:

Under the 'Freedom Of Information' act you can request a transcript of any conversations you have had with them, and/or any notes that have been made on your account.

Please note that you can only ask for transcripts of calls that you have made, your partner would need to ask for hers (if any)

Thank you very much for posting that info, it will come in handy in our case...They have given me dates that completely untrue statements were added to our file notes. Obviously someone else's details have been entered under our names and they can't explain how this has happened :mad:

boysmum3

I am paying £27 a month for the next year for a £350 overpayment when i was a single parent, this is after i went 4 months with no tax credits when i changed jobs (resolved and i got £70 compensation as well as a big backdated cheque)- after i had requested a standing order/direct debit mandate and sent back it took them 3 months to take 1st payment so they are not that desperate for the money! I am now with my partner and we get child tax credit inc the baby element for 3kids - I'm not back at work yet and i informed TC office when my mat pay was more than i thought and when it stopped - would love to know the formula for calculating TC's as when i told them i had got £200 more maternity pay than i had predicted they took £15 a week off us!! Perhaps it's just me but this seems excessive!! Now i doubt my partner will earn as much as i predicted - so..... does any one know if they are as quick to calculate extra TC's you might be owed as they are to ask for overpayments!!?

CIS

You can ignore £100 per week in maternity pay, anything more than is counted as income, I would I have though they would only take £15 per week to avoid a larger overpayment at the end of the year, probably they discovered that their would be when they re-calculated your award.

When you give them the change of income, then 99 times out of a 100, they change the award in a reasonably quick time without any problems.

The general rules for calculating tax credits are realtively easy to understand and can be found on the HMRC website, in the procedural manual section.

alliboy03

alliboy03 wrote:

hi there, thanks to you lot out there on this web site, I decided to appeal my over payment of a grand! I got the tax credit letter today to say it had all been a big mistake and they were sorry!!they've written the whole thing off.It's well worth appealing, don't give up, if i had done i'd be paying £100 a month now, like they wanted me to.MANY MANY BIG THANK YOU's to you all, and martin (of course) from a frazzled mum in lincolnshire. :money: :beer:

:mad: my joy didn't last to long recivied new letter's today saying i owe £1,700, when will the madness end, will appeal of course!!But does anyone know if i can sue for untold stress???