Alarmed at CTC Payments

Christie_L

Any advice would be welcome as I am so confused after coming off the phone with HMRC.

Basically, about a week ago I phoned the CTC helpline to advise them I was no longer receiving statutory maternity pay, and that as of 1.3.08 I have been receiving Jobseekers Allowance (contribution based) at about £60pw.

On Wednesday of this week, I noticed two payments made to my bank account from Work & Child Tax Credits, one payment for over £500, and another for £600, both made on the same day.

I phoned HMRC to ask why and the woman stated they had recorded me as receiving Income-based JSA, not contribution-based. She then said she worked it out that I was due about £1260 in back-payments (??).

The direct.gov website calculates that our household is due £553 per year in CTC, which is less than we currently receive (currently we get £1080 per year).

My husband earns £26000 per year, and I feel sure that they have made some sort of mistake. I have only been receiving JSA for 6 weeks so how come such a high amount of back-payment?

Does anyone have any experience of CTC's? This can't be right surely...

Thanks & best wishes, Christie xxxx

mitchaa

They've messed up somewhere.

On an income of £26000pa you should only be entitled to the basic element of CTC which is £545pa (Doubled in 1st year)

It looks like they have disregarded your husbands income somewhere and based it solely on yours as if you were a single parent.

Well thats what it looks like to me anyway.

Expect an overpayment and arrears at some point in the future.

Sometimes i think the HMRC would be better employing a load of monkeys.

JessicaF_2

Hi

As soon as an income based Job Seekers Allowance marker is placed on the claim, all other income is disregarded and you receive maximum tax credits (i.e. you partner's income will not be counted).

It sounds as if they may have put you down as income based JSA when in fact you are getting contribution based.

Have you received an award notice to go with these papers? You should ring the helpline and tell them again it is contribution based NOT income based.

You should make a note of the date, time and person you spoke to.

As soon as you receive the award notice tell them again within 30 days that there is an error, if there is a subsequent overpayment it should be written off under their new COP 26 guidelines.

Jessica

hotblu

JessicaF wrote: »

Hi

As soon as an income based Job Seekers Allowance marker is placed on the claim, all other income is disregarded and you receive maximum tax credits (i.e. you partner's income will not be counted).

It sounds as if they may have put you down as income based JSA when in fact you are getting contribution based.

Have you received an award notice to go with these papers? You should ring the helpline and tell them again it is contribution based NOT income based.

You should make a note of the date, time and person you spoke to.

As soon as you receive the award notice tell them again within 30 days that there is an error, if there is a subsequent overpayment it should be written off under their new COP 26 guidelines.

Jessica

Quick question... why should the overpayment be written off? Customer is aware they are not entitled to the money... no dispute, money has to be paid back.

donnalove

hotblu wrote: »

Quick question... why should the overpayment be written off? Customer is aware they are not entitled to the money... no dispute, money has to be paid back.

Whilst i understand your frustration we don't make the rules.:rolleyes:

Cherryscone

hotblu wrote: »

Quick question... why should the overpayment be written off? Customer is aware they are not entitled to the money... no dispute, money has to be paid back.

Have you ever tried to get ctc to take money back i have and they wont they just class it as overpayment and take it the following year at approx £10 wk thats what happened to me i got to payments one of £500 then one of £400 after telling me i was entitled to it (and boy i did need it)and i keep saying no its a mistake take it back out of my account they refused si i spend it and now have it all paid back ctc do make mistakes all the time

hotblu

donnalove wrote: »

Whilst i understand your frustration we don't make the rules.:rolleyes:

Tough day at work. I appreciate it put's customer's in a difficult situation getting large payments they are not entitled, and yes, it may be a mistake by TCO. However, that doesn't justify jumping on a bandwagon and trying to get it remitted. End of the day their is someone else who is entitled to that money, so they should get it.

[Deleted User]

An overpayment could be remitted if the applicant was not made aware of any error that was made and that there was no obvious signs that there was an error. Large unexpected payments are an obvious indicator that an error could have occurred and you would be expected to query this with TCO.

In this case it is obvious that the payments were made in error and WILL be recovered even if there has been an error by TCO.

In regards to paying it back, you CAN pay it back directly even if it is being recovered from your future payments. You can arrange to repay it though the debt management team or send a check to the accounts office.

jay1jay

Actually, under the revised COP26 procedures, if it was tco's error that caused a jsa(ib) marker to be put on the claim in error (the claimant would have had to have made it clear that it was jsa(cb) and not jsa(ib) that she received) and the claimant tells the tco about the error within 30 days, there is a chance the overpaymant can be remitted. Its not about 'reasonable belief' anymore, so it doesnt matter if the claimant knew the lump sum payments were wrong or not. Its about responsibilities, and whether the tco met theirs and whether the claimant met theirs. If the claimant gave the correct info and tco input the info incorrectly, and the claimant told them about this error, then the tco have failed in their responsibility to accuratly record a change in circs and the claimant has met their responsibilities. Thats a reason for a full remit!

nm8553

think putting the money into a savings account would be a sensible strategy while waiting to see if the new COP rules apply

Christie_L

Thanks to everyone who replied.

I've just called HMRC again to make certain they have me recorded as receiving CB-JSA, which they claim they have.

However it seems that I now have to fill out a 'dispute form' to dispute the overpayment, which doesn't make sense to me as they have already admitted they made a mistake.

They've also said that because I have been overpaid, I will not receive any more CTC for the rest of the tax year. So does this mean I could reasonably deduct (from the overpayment )the £83-ish per month that I used to receive in CTC's?

I've also been given an address to write to to get a copy of the telephone call I originally made when I told them I was claiming CB-JSA. Is this really necessary do you think?

I just want our payments to be corrected, not have to go through all this

Christie xx