Tax credits

[liz4paris]

I received a few letters from the inland revenue requesting £545 to be returned to them for overpayment of tax credits.
Now being as we supplied alol the correct information at the time (2003/04) can we not dispute this? if so is there a letter best used when doing so. I rang them and was told to dipsute it but repeatedly asked how much i was gong to pay.
My husband and i are sperated now and both live on breadline.

[Mullio]

I'm in the same boat. Anyone know what to do?

[welly]

I would give them a ring and explain everything to them and ask why the over payment was not picked up at the time.

Heres some good info and ring them I have always found them helpful and they will help if you cant pay it back
Appealing against a tax credit decision : Directgov - Money tax and benefits

Have a read round and you will find the info you want

Welly

[dollies01]

Hiya

You can appeal against the decision, you need to ring and ask them for the appeals form. You will not be asked to repay anything, if it is fair to believe that to your best knowledge your claim was correct.
They wont ask for the money back if its likely to cause your family hardship either............or so they say!

I am currently repaying them £40 a month for a ten grand overpayment (long story lol )
For them to work out how much you can afford to repay, they do a means form, asking what comes in and goes out..........I suggest you are honest with the ins and add at least £30 to all the outs! (they don't check)
good luck
and dont worry, they can't have what you haven't got

[Mullio]

Hi Dollies,

I've already done the appeals form. Unfortunately this is the reply when they say "In our view, it was not reasonable to believe these payments were correct" & "You have no right of appeal against my decision".

They say a line about "if you have any more information" let them know. I think I may have a trump card here as it was actually the job centre who fast tracked my claim and told me to go for tax credits.

[dollies01]

Just out of interest.............did they charge you a penalty too?
They didnt me, which kinda suggests that they realise the overpayment wasn't my fault.

The whole system stinks, if you ask me, It helps put people in a poverty trap, my husband is even worried about doing overtime, incase he earns more than he is allowed too, and we end up worse off next tax year!

[gerrimcc]

I was in this situation a couple of years ago when tax credits were introduced. I had filled the form in CORRECTLY and sent it off. At that stage I had a new born baby who was very poorly so I didnt have time to read everything in the post.

About 5 months later my sister told me what she was getting -alot less than I was, so I thought something was wrong. I phoned the Inland Revenue and went though everything to make sure it was correct. The girl on the phone told me that I would receive a new award notice but didn't say anything was wrong.

A while later I received my new award notice to tell me that my payments were going to be stopped - I had no idea why! So I phoned them and was told that apparently when my tax credits claim form was received the computer had not picked up my ex partners income. So they had it at £0 but working 37 hrs. Not my fault but was told I HAD TO PAY IT BACK nearly £2000. They allowed my tax credits to continue but at took a chunk every month.

I then went through a separation and had to put in a new single claim that took months. There was still about £600 left to pay back from the overpayment. I started to receive threatening letters demanding the money to be paid back. It was about this time that I seen it on the news, that the Inland Revenue were giving people other options -If the mistake was not the claiments fault they wouldnt have to pay it back! So I tried to claim what I paid to them for the overpayment. Still no success! So Im out of pocket and I still owe them money for their mistake.

So anyone who has to repay an overpayment dont hold your breath! They will still take it.

Also something that may be useful. If you fill in a claim form and your income at the end of the year is £2000 above what was predicted they wont ask for the overpayment.

[gerrimcc]

Lis4paris

Do you know why there was an overpayment? If it was their fault they will argue that they sent out the Award Notice and it was up to you to check it. In hindsight I should have said I never received it. I was also told over the phone by Inland Revenue employees that I would get it all back. But this never happened and they said "that no employee would have told me that" But they did. After joining this site im going to ask for everything ( recorded phone calls letters I sent and received as well as the original correct claim I sent in) before I go to my local counsellor.

Hope all goes well for anyone who the Inland Revenue are pressurising for overpayments.

[crward1]

1st post . anyways.... again i'm in the same boat as you guys and strange enough the same happened last year (me spots a pattern). this time they claim they overpaid us £2000 for 4 months, but we never saw anything near that amount.
bbc did a program about tax credits, shocking to say the least! they gave the formula to oxford mathematicians and even with it they could NOT work out the amount someone had been awarded. if top mathematicians can't work it out, how can we?

[meagain]

Originally Posted by crward1

bbc did a program about tax credits, shocking to say the least! they gave the formula to oxford mathematicians and even with it they could NOT work out the amount someone had been awarded. if top mathematicians can't work it out, how can we?

When I was working there, I wasn't able to match the numbers up either, and we had access to information not disclosed to the public!

At the very least, maintain contact with the local press and your MP, who will be in a better position to do something. Since you are dealing with a Government department, I am not sure whether you would be dealing with the Crown, which cannot be sued or prosecuted. You will need to take further advice to clarify this if you plan on taking things further.

[busyliz]

totally sympathise with you on this one. We were receiving CTC + WTC, we then sent off our annual review pack, only for them to tell us they were stopping the WTC due to overpayment. Thats £46 a wk WTC down to NOTHING! when we asked why, we were told the figure of earnings on the original form was £8020!? even though I know how much my partner earns-£14,021 per yr and KNOW I filled out the form accurately. I put the phone down on this occasion, then rang up about 20mins later with anougher Q, I then asked that person the amount that was entered on the original claim form and low and behold they gave me the original figure of £14021!!
We had good reason to think they were paying us correctly as when the claim first started we were geting £72 per wk, then after 3 weeks it went down to £46, after ringing up, they said the system had made an error and had now been rectified, it has been at £46 ever since. Its a complete mystry as he hasnt earnt any more this yr than last or changed jobs so it must be their fault.
we have sent off an appeal form and are waiting to hear back.
My partner is changing jobs later this yr and i cant wait to ring them and tell them to stuff their WTC up their arse, its a shame we cant live without the CTC becuase otherwise I would stick my fingers up to the whole system, its a complete shambles.

[dollies01]

Busyliz my sentiments exactly..........sick of being made to feel so bloody grateful to them, when I still get less than my husband pays in anyway!

[meagain]

Originally Posted by busyliz

We had good reason to think they were paying us correctly as when the claim first started we were geting £72 per wk, then after 3 weeks it went down to £46, after ringing up, they said the system had made an error and had now been rectified, it has been at £46 ever since.

Sorry, but that is not "good reason to believe payments were correct", that's "blindly assuming that payments were correct". "Good reason" means you exercised due diligence in checking the paperwork, you checked each notice to make sure things like the income figures, working hours, etc. are right. If you didn't do this, you did not have good reason to believe all was well. Blind faith does not qualify.

[Rich44]

if you read the rest of the post instead of that little extract it makes more sense

[meagain]

Originally Posted by Rich44

if you read the rest of the post instead of that little extract it makes more sense

I was pointing out that particular bit of information was pointless, before anyone else decides to just read that little extract and then think they've got a case.

[busyliz]

well, we sent off the appeal notice and there was a case because weve just heard back that they did make a blatent mistake and had cancelled the repayments and we will continue to get the WTC, just at a lower rate.

BTW, we DID check our award notices and letters they sent us and phoned them on a regular basis. My point is that unless I personally deliver the information to them in person, go onto their computer system and work it out myself, how the hell am i supposed to know THEY'VE made a mistake??!

[suttonh]

Hi i don't know if this helps but for future reference ring your local MP and go and see them.

Inland Revenue tried to claim over £2,000 off me last year when it was their error and no matter how many times i appealed they came to the same decision that i did owe them the money it went on for over year and in the end i rang my Local MP and went to see her and she was great and gave her all my correspondence with the Inland Revenue and she said she could help.

They have a telephone hotline to the Inland Revenue so once they call the Inland Revenue they have to deal with it within 7 days. My case was dealt with in under a week with a letter admitting it was there fault and a cheque refunding me all the money that they had taken off me for the overpayment.

It is worth a try if anyone else is in the same situation.

[meagain]

BTW, we DID check our award notices and letters they sent us and phoned them on a regular basis.

Excellent - you won't get much closer to the appeal criteria than this. One of the issues is that, with very few exceptions, you won't receive an award notice unless someone makes a change to your record (other than the manual notes). If you did not receive an award notice for this reason, appellants should expect the benefit of the doubt.

As I've said before, the system is horribly broken, but you cannot use that fact as a defence.