New code of practice on tax credit overpayment recovery

[Joa]

Further to Treasury Minister Jane Kennedy having announced last autumn that the tax credit 'reasonable belief test' would be replaced, the Revenue has today published an extensively rewritten version of its 'COP 26' code of practice.
With the Parliamentary Ombudsman Anne Abraham having said, in her report Tax Credits: Getting it wrong?, that the Revenue's application of COP 26 - that governs Revenue decisions on the recovery of tax credit overpayments - was unfair and unreasonable, Ms Kennedy told Parliament that the 'very disliked' reasonable belief test would be replaced -

'... with a clearer test ... that will lead to a fairer allocation of responsibilities between the customer and the Department.'

To this end, whilst COP 26 had stated that for the Revenue to write off an overpayment a claimant was required to show both that it had occurred due to official error and that they had a reasonable belief that their payments had been correct, the new version instead lists the responsibilities that both the claimant and the Revenue are expected to fulfil, and states that, for example -

* if you fulfil all of your responsibilities but we have failed in ours, we won't ask you to pay back all of the overpayment arising from our failure;
* you must report any errors on your award notice within a month of receiving it (but) if you do then you won't be responsible for any overpayment which has occurred because of our error;
* we may write off parts of an overpayment if we have failed to meet one or more responsibilities but you have also failed to meet yours; and
* we may not ask you to pay back an overpayment if you contacted us to tell us your difficult personal circumstances meant you could not check your award notice or bank payments.

The revised Code of Practice 26 (COP 26) is available here: HM Revenue & Customs: COP 26 - What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?


from rightsnet - the welfare rights website for advice workers

[vinegarvera]

Bloomin eck! about time!

Too late for me though just finished paying mine back and it nearly killed me!

[chickaroo]

im confused does it mean we have to i had a bill for 450.00 no way can i afford to pay it back

[suzannef]

does anyone know where to get help with an overpayment of taxcredit for the amount of about 40000 pounds so the tax office says. I cannot afford to pay any of this back and most of this was for childcare although the carer did not say this. I am in a big mess