Tax credits overpayment advice

HappyDuck_2

For an OP to be remitted it needs to have been caused by an HMRC error you could not reasonably have been aware of.

This means you must have reported changes on time & read your award notices when they arrived. Take a look through the full list of obligations in the COP26 booklet at www.hmrc.gov.uk . OP's do get corrected if you meet the criteria, sadly most are due to customer error.

sjaypink

this could go on for a long while yet! im 5 yrs in, still no answers!

make sure you write down everything u r told at each phonecall, the time and date and who u spoke to, as well as all letters. im still in dispute with tc over their mistakes from 2003-04, absolute nightmare, luckily i have kept record of everything which has been my saviour as several of their explanations have refferred to info in 'letter dated 4.07.03' etc. which of course proves again they r liars- or at best maybe just thoroughly incompetant.
keep going dont give up although it is so hard but if your sure its not your fault then proceed.

as for time limits - who knows? i submitted 1 appeal and rang 4months l8r as had not heard anything & was told it could not be looked at as it contained new info (it didnt!), & of course no1 had bothered to inform me of this....... another went to the customer support dept and after waitng 3mths after their target date for reply they told me they had lost my file! another 3mths & 7 phonecalls l8r i was rewarded with a template letter.....

ps may also be worth writing and asking for all your held info to be sent (entitled to under the data protection act) this should include call logs and so will confirm for your case that u informed them of everything etc.

180

Hi everyone.. dispute all overpayments that you think are not your fault, as you have informed the TCO office off all changes..


get your MP involved.. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ you can also write to them via this site..


get the CAB involved.. http://www.nacab.org.uk/


You can get advice here.. http://www.taxcc.org./


You can join the forum here for more advice..

http://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/default.asp

Dispute long and hard, and while you are disputing the overpayment, no money should be taken from your award..and if they contact you asking for payment. tell them you are in dispute, then complain about it..and send recorded deliver, although they seem to like loosing theses letters as well..

get a sarn request going, it is free and will give you the paperwork and notes from your cliam, this will come in very useful..


this site will show you how.. http://www.taxcc.org./

mitchaa

For all the people that are whinging....

Why shouldn't you pay back overpayments?? Why should you get to keep this?

For some strange reason, my salary was paid into my bank twice last month. Not for 1 minute did i think ''i would get away with it'' and keep it.

I alerted my HR dept straight away, they looked into it, and i repaid, simple as! How many halfwits would have spent it,for the company to realise their error and claim it back a couple of months later?

All this nonsense of getting MP's involved:rotfl: You've been overpaid !!!!!!, not underpaid. They will take back any money owed to them like any other company would.

You dont always hear the true story on internet forums, posters make it look like they have done everything correctly and its the HMRC to blame. I would say 99% of the time its down to false decleration of the claimant more like.

If you've been overpaid, pay it back and stop whinging. Be greatful in the 1st hand that the state is helping and paying to support you:rolleyes:

whitewing

mitchaa, you obviously don't have too much experience of tax credits so I suggest you take your ill-formed opinion, lack of respect and lack of compassion elsewhere.

mitchaa

whitewing wrote: »

mitchaa, you obviously don't have too much experience of tax credits so I suggest you take your ill-formed opinion, lack of respect and lack of compassion elsewhere.

Excuse me, this thread is about people whinging about paying back overpayments made to them. I fail to see how i am the 1 in the wrong? You're saying overpayments should not be paid back Why?

You're correct, thankfully i do not have experience with tax credits and hopefully never will do

coupon_king_2

Mitchaa .... Prehaps you could advise on my brothers situation.

He claimed working tax credits and through no fault of his own lost his employment, wtc were contacted at once so payments could be stopped and he went to claim income support however he was told he would be unale to do this as wtc were still paying him. Despite many phone calls during the last 7 months the payments were still made to him and all he was told each time was until the computer stopped payments there was nothing they could do.

Now as already stated Inc Support had refused to help ,the only money he had for food and bills was the wtc money which he was forced to use, he has now received a letter from wtc demanding £4,000.00 in overpayments but has been told he can only claim upto a maximum of 3 months backdated Income support.

Please advise !

mitchaa

coupon_king wrote: »

Mitchaa .... Prehaps you could advise on my brothers situation.

He claimed working tax credits and through no fault of his own lost his employment, wtc were contacted at once so payments could be stopped and he went to claim income support however he was told he would be unale to do this as wtc were still paying him. Despite many phone calls during the last 7 months the payments were still made to him and all he was told each time was until the computer stopped payments there was nothing they could do.

Now as already stated Inc Support had refused to help ,the only money he had for food and bills was the wtc money which he was forced to use, he has now received a letter from wtc demanding £4,000.00 in overpayments but has been told he can only claim upto a maximum of 3 months backdated Income support.

Please advise !

He lost his job and then decided to claim income support? I thought normal port of call was to 'sign on' and claim JSA? Wouldn't have thought he would have been entitled to income support?

Anyway, income support payments were £59.15pw, your brother received £4000 in 7 months from WTC. The maths do not add up. He has substantially gained from this and he should have set aside the excess money he was receiving. (I guess he spent it:rolleyes: )

7 months = approx 30 weeks.

If he was on IS he would have got

30 x £59.15 = £1774.50

HOWEVER

He was paid £4000 in them 7 months so (£4000/30 = £133.33pw)

So instead of his £59.15pw entitlement he was actually receiving £133.33pw? 2.5x more than what he should have been receiving?

Did he ever think of trying to get another job IMMEDIATELY after losing his job? Why did he decide to go on the 'dole' for 7 months instead?

Sorry blind ignorance is not an excuse, why did he spend the WTC money if he knew it wasn't right? He was receiving 2.5x more than what he should have been.

Who is at fault here? The claimant, he should have banked the difference and paid back the difference.

£4000-£1774.50 = £2225.50 overpayment

Yes he should pay it back, its his fault for spending the excess.

Honestly, some people beggar belief:rolleyes:

donnalove

mitchaa wrote: »

He lost his job and then decided to claim income support? I thought normal port of call was to 'sign on' and claim JSA? Wouldn't have thought he would have been entitled to income support?

Anyway, income support payments were £59.15pw, your brother received £4000 in 7 months from WTC. The maths do not add up. He has substantially gained from this and he should have set aside the excess money he was receiving. (I guess he spent it:rolleyes: )

7 months = approx 30 weeks.

If he was on IS he would have got

30 x £59.15 = £1774.50

HOWEVER

He was paid £4000 in them 7 months so (£4000/30 = £133.33pw)

So instead of his £59.15pw entitlement he was actually receiving £133.33pw? 2.5x more than what he should have been receiving?

Did he ever think of trying to get another job IMMEDIATELY after losing his job? Why did he decide to go on the 'dole' for 7 months instead?

Sorry blind ignorance is not an excuse, why did he spend the WTC money if he knew it wasn't right? He was receiving 2.5x more than what he should have been.

Who is at fault here? The claimant, he should have banked the difference and paid back the difference.

£4000-£1774.50 = £2225.50 overpayment

Yes he should pay it back, its his fault for spending the excess.

Honestly, some people beggar belief:rolleyes:

hang on mitcha the op said his brother wasn't allowed to claim is, so he is bound to spend the wtc how else was he supposed to live.

to op i think your brother should take a trip to cab and see if they can help him with this as it will get very complicated.

Elaine_Wilson

Mitchaa, I do agree with the gist of what you say - where someone knowingly receives money they are not entitled to they should not moan about having to repay it.

The problem with working tax credit (and, I suspect, the credits related to children) is that the information sent out by HMRC is not always clear. Last year was the first time I had received a detailed calculation of the amount due to me. Prior to this I was just told the circumstances they had based the claim on and the final amount payable.

This communication problem does need to be addressed. It is still not always clear to the claimant what their entitlement really is.

To illustrate - in my case I was informed last August that they would overpay me by some £370 in 2007/08. I could have told them not to, but having experienced their "helpline" earlier decided to let the matter stand. I appreciate I owe this money and have no problem with the concept of repaying it. When they get around to asking for it back I will oblige.

Since the beginning of April my payments have changed. I was informed of the amounts that would be paid but this did not include any details of the calculation they had used. I currently have no idea if my overpayment is increasing or decreasing.

This is not a problem for me. If I had to repay all of the payments I could. But there are many who need this money and could not afford to reserve the whole of the payments in case they had to be repaid. Surely this isn't fair?