How long can they chase for a repayment?

Agg

Can anyone tell me how long the Tax Credit people can chase you for repayment of an over payment?

They have calculated that I have been overpaid by £600 in total over the 03/04 and 04/05 tax years. tbh, they are probably correct but I want to do as much as I can to avoid paying them because.....well, because I don't want to have to pay out this amount!

I have been remiss in that for a long time I ignored their letters hoping it would just go away (naive I know!) However last August I did try and sort it out. When I spoke to them then they told me that I had not put a claim in since 2005 and that if I had been eligible for payment in the 2005-2006 tax year, even though they could not pay me any money due that year, what could have been paid to me during that year could be used to reduce my debt to them. I gave them my figures over the phone for that tax year and we concluded that I was below the threshold for eligibility for that year. They said they would put those figures into the calculator and work out what impact it would have on my situation and get back to me with a revised debt figure.

I heard nothing from them from then (August 2007) until now when they have written to me to tell me that the deadline for figures for the 2005-2006 year was 20th September 2006 and as they got my figures after this date they cannot now consider them. (Why they did not tell me this at the time I don't know!) In the letter they have made no reference to the money they want back from me, so I don't currently know what has happened about this.

My main question is:

Can they have a never ending time period to claim back from us whereas us punters only have a limited time period to claim back from them?

I'm sure that people will say the simple answer to this is, "Yes", but surely if they are wanting to claim money back they could consider offsetting this against any money they could have paid, so reducing the debt.

Conor_3

Basically, they have up to 7 years to claim back money.

lil_me

As it's government money I did not think there was a time limit for recovering overpayments? I may be wrong.

[Deleted User]

I thought the same lil_me, if they only have 7 years I am sure they will make an attempt to prosecute before the 7 years passed. And if it went to court and prosecution was successful they could probably add on the legal costs too.

They cannot offset any money that they would have paid if you were to re-apply for Tax Credits because quite simply, you didnt re-apply and there is a limit of 93 days backdating.

System

lil_me wrote: »

As it's government money

Sorry to be picky but it's not government money it's taxpayers money and I think TCO should do everything it can to recover it.

Eager_Elephant

There is no time limit for recovery of overpayments or social fund.

They will continue to chase you unless you make an offer.
I have always found the Debt Recovery Team very easy to deal with, if someone is now on a single claim where they were on a joint before they agree to split the bill 50/50 and if you really don't have any available income they can hold the account for 6 months.

Would you qualify this year?

Even if you pay £10pm at least it will slowly come down.

EE