Reclaiming child tax credit

Flumpster

Evening folks

My wife and I have recently been giving our finances a much needed spring-clean and realised that we've unwittingly neglected to claim child tax credits since our first-born arrived in August 2007.

Having called the tax office, we've been sent forms and have had tax credits paid to us dating back 3 months, as opposed to the date our boy was born.

When my wife was on the phone to the tax office, they said that it was possible to claim back all of the credit that we are due but that we would have to have a 'compelling reason'. When my wife asked for an example of what a compelling reason might be, the officer clammed up and wouldn't help.

Now, we aren't trying to scam the tax-payer here, it was a simple oversight and we just want to reclaim what we are due so my question to anyone reading this is do you know what the tax office would consider a 'compelling reason' as I suspect that if we tell them that it was an honest oversight then they'll tell us to take a run and jump. Any suggestions?

tigtag02

I dont think *oversight* will ever be classed as a compelling reason.

I think you may have to bite the bullet and accept your oversight means you have mised out.

alwaysonthego_2

Would agree with Tigtag, a compelling reason could be postnatal depression which would need to be diagnosed by a doctor, relationship breakdown, mental health but even these would have to be serious enough for you to be able to back claim TCs

Flumpster

tigtag02 wrote: »

I dont think *oversight* will ever be classed as a compelling reason.

I think you may have to bite the bullet and accept your oversight means you have mised out.

Thanks for the reply but do you think that it is morally correct that we should miss out on our tax credits simply because we didn't realise that we were due them?

What with trust funds, child benefits and tax credits, it's a lot of faffing when you have a new life to take care of.

alison999

i missed out on a lot of child benefit, i moved and b/c i didnt update my address my payments stopped (i totally forgot, its not that i just didnt bother), i missed out on over £300 (a lot of money to me) but its just one of those things. best put it down to experience maybe?

alison999

Flumpster wrote: »

Thanks for the reply but do you think that it is morally correct that we should miss out on our tax credits simply because we didn't realise that we were due them?

What with trust funds, child benefits and tax credits, it's a lot of faffing when you have a new life to take care of.

there isnt that much faffing just a few forms to fill in or phone calls.

Mips

We didn't know for well over a year about Tax Credits and were paying £600 a month for Childcare.

I didn't try and claim it back though because, well, I couldn't be bothered with the effort and I suppose it was my oversight.

alison999

Dippychick wrote: »

We didn't know for well over a year about Tax Credits and were paying £600 a month for Childcare.

I didn't try and claim it back though because, well, I couldn't be bothered with the effort and I suppose it was my oversight.

exactly. i think sometimes you just have take some responsibility, and i think 3 months is a ok cut off date. i know its frustrating though having lost out on money myself

Flumpster

alison999 wrote: »

exactly. i think sometimes you just have take some responsibility, and i think 3 months is a ok cut off date. i know its frustrating though having lost out on money myself

I did take responsibility, you pompous smart-alec - I took responsibility for my new-born baby boy.

Not that he's 10 months old and in a settled routine and our lives are returning to a semblance of normality we decided to revisit our finances to give them a going over.

Don't worry though, alison999, the next time I feel that I need a bit of virtuosity and moral guidance I'll be sure to look you up.

Now, does anyone have any helpful suggestions for how my family might get the tax credit back that we haven't received?

Thanks

shellsuit

Flumpster wrote: »

I did take responsibility, you pompous smart-alec - I took responsibility for my new-born baby boy.

Not that he's 10 months old and in a settled routine and our lives are returning to a semblance of normality we decided to revisit our finances to give them a going over.

Don't worry though, alison999, the next time I feel that I need a bit of virtuosity and moral guidance I'll be sure to look you up.

Now, does anyone have any helpful suggestions for how my family might get the tax credit back that we haven't received?

Thanks

No need for that, Alison was making a comment on what Dippy had said, it wasn't aimed directly at you.

If the only reasons are that you didn't know you could claim, or didn't get around to it, then like you have been told by TC themselves, they can only backdate 3 months, which is quite fair in my opinion.

alwaysonthego_2

Flumpster wrote: »

I did take responsibility, you pompous smart-alec - I took responsibility for my new-born baby boy.

Not that he's 10 months old and in a settled routine and our lives are returning to a semblance of normality we decided to revisit our finances to give them a going over.

Don't worry though, alison999, the next time I feel that I need a bit of virtuosity and moral guidance I'll be sure to look you up.

Now, does anyone have any helpful suggestions for how my family might get the tax credit back that we haven't received?

Thanks

Look you have been given some very good advice and you need to look at your own attitude. Alice was being sympathetic with you expericencing a similar situation to yourself.

I work for the cab and in my last post I have given you an indication of what would be considered has mitigationg circumstances. It might not be what you want to read but you have to face up to it that you may only be able to back claim 3 months HTH