tax credit overpayments new report published

dandpbutler

hi, first of all im sorry if someone has answered a similar question to mine already but its such a long thread and i couldnt read it all.

Right, last year 2009-2010 i was a single working parent claiming WTC & CTC. I also was claiming housing and council tax benefit. I didnt qualify for the whole amount though as i wasnt on benefits (income support/JSA). therefore my HB/CTB was regularly calculated on my wages and W&CTC. I always notifed TC's whenever I had a change of circumstances ie income, childcare and change of address. And in turn always informed HB/CTB when TC's changed my award.

However, in Oct 2009 my single claim ended as my partner moved in. Again I notified tax credits. They sent my amended award ending my claim but also stated i had been overpaid by £444. I queried this with them and they said it was because everytime I notified them of a change an extra payment had been paid and the remainder of my payments if i had continued my claim would have evened it out. they said i neednt do anything until the end of the tax year when they issue the final tax year award based on my exact earnings.

In Jan 2010, i stopped working, so my estimated income for the year was more than actual earnings. I have given them my actual earnings which is £1311 less than estimated. However, yesterday I have received an a bill for the exact same amount even though they have my exact income for the tax year!!!!

I do understand how the overpayment has occured but that is through no fault of my own as i have always been honest and notified them of any changes. If I hadnt notifed of partner moving in I wouldnt have had a overpayment!!!!

The other thing that is niggling me though is, when they were paying higher amounts of tax credits (ie through the overpayments) my housing/council tax benefit had been reduced. if my claim had continued, i would have been receiving less tax credit but receiving more housing/council benefit and have had no overpayment at the end of the year. IMO is seems at though what extra i have been paid from one government fund (tax credits) has already been reduced from another fund (housing/c/tax ben). therefore i feel as though i would be paying for it twice if i were to make repayments on it as any repayments i would make wouldnt be taken into consideration with our current housing benefit iykwim.

sorry for the long post. i just so frustrated. just looking for some advise really. has anyone else had this same problem??? what was the outcome etc.

thanks

dartsman

Can anyone clarify this for me ...on April 5th 2006 we had overpayments of £1677 on the 5th April 2007 our overpayments had risen to £1981 even though our earnings in year 2006 was £16824 and year 2007 was £19256 meaning a difference of only £2432 well within the £25000 limit..2008 / 2009 /2010 our wages have risen but not by much and well within the £25000 threshold could please somebody clarify for me if this is right and are we entitled to a refund thanks any information would be greatful ,i would rather find out on here than phone credit hotline as i dont want to sound stupid...thanks for reading

AfterDark

Hi, I'm sure this has prob been asked loads of times before on this thread, but it's far to long to read it all.

I've been sent a letter saying I've been overpaid by £2200, Called them up and arranged for a direct debit to repay this over the next 2 years. However have been speaking to a friend about it who says I can dispute this with them. Every letter they have sent me has a different amount on it, it started off as £1560. I can account for £1400ish of the overpayment and Know I'm due them that much, However I have no Idea where the other £800 come's in it

Can someone please tell me how I go about disputing this with them ?

Thanks

cardcrazyden

Afterdark
To dispute an overpayment you need to ask for form TC846 alternatively phone the and tell them you wish to dispute the overpayment. Once the form has been received and overpayment has been disputed the tax credit office MUST STOP collecting it.


To anyone who has an overpayment must you "dispute" it if you believe it is not your fault.
You must also ask for all your data. Also know as a SARN request The advisory line should know this address. You should receive it within 40 days , if not complain. Once the sarn documents have been received please number each page and document. These pages will show what changes were made to your claim and more importantly when.

To give added weight to your case get your MP involved. The MP's have a hot line to the tax credit office (TCO) and can get answers pretty much immediatly

I have had an overpayment that the TCO they agreed was not my fault. They event told my MP it was'nt. Yet they still collected it back.
I have now taken my case to the Adjudicators office and boy oh boy are the apologies coming thick and fast.

I had some fantastic advice from the www.taxcc.org .

Please please DO NOT let this government organisation take money from you when you have done nothing wrong. Send everything recorded delivery. I stopped phoning them and wrote at every stage . Slowly but shorly the errors began to show. Don't be surprised if you get nowhere. The TCO will lie and give many different excuses as some of the posts here have already shown.

The letters I wrote now have proved invaluable they show how the TCO ignored my questions, and lied not just to me, but my MP.

Please please please do not give up. I got nowhere with them and took it to the next stage. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

It is very very stressful, but trust me to get an apology is so satisfying. I may even get all my money back, but its no longer about that, it the principal.

Don't let take money you are entitled to if you did nothing wrong!

tomjones333

Help:
I applied for tax credits in 2004 via there online service, It asked as to my wage which I put £220 and my hoours worked 37, the same for my wife. They then contacted me in 2007 saying they had over payed me as they took it that I was earning £220 a year for working 37 hours a week the same for my wife: I had disputed this but they said you didnt say it was wrong (How would I no) then I get my MP to write to them and they say its my fault and I owe £2700, I have three letters asking for this amount, Today I phone to see about paying it and they say Oh now you owe £5500, I say that the letters say £2700 but they just say nup its £5500. what can I do I need a solisitor or accountant to sort this out, Im already having mental health issues over the worry and dont no where to turn:

silver_mountain

sutty79 wrote: »

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.

can i ask whats happened since this post?

silver_mountain

sutty79 wrote: »

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.

Any update?