Tax Credit Overpayment

[bp]

hi, sorry don't mean to high-jack your thread but it seems this is a big problem. I'm sure i've been overpaid by nearly £2000 problem is i've always told them of the changes, i told them i was going to change child carers a bout a month in advance, they told me it was too early, i told them 3 wks before they still said it was too early, i then asked them to calculate roughly how much they would pay me and i was told the amount of around £800 per month which seemed about right to me. I told them to make a note that i had called them to tell them of the changes and the lady i spoke to told me not to worry. I called a week before because i wanted the changes to go through the system in time for my next payment date (they told me it would take 48hrs for it to be updated). as far as i was concerned everything was sorted.

because i wanted to be sure, i called them again 3days before my payment and would you believe it the system had been update but with the wrong info! Instead of changing childcare costs from £368 per wk to £175 as from 15th Jan, the lady had put in that the costs had gone up but that i would also stop using chilcarers as from 19th Feb! i mean bloody hell! do they really know what they are doing? anyway, payment date comes and guess what £1300 put in bank and a day later £600 and the following Monday £400 what on earth is going on? how can they possibly argue that this is not their fault?

[sinking_fast]

just send it back to them, don't spend it, if you spend it then even though you've given them the right info, they're just going to say you knew that the money wasn't yours, if the money is still in the bank, i wouldn't worry abour it, just get all the right info in black and white (an award notice) and work out yourself what to send them back. Have you phoned them since and asked them what all this money is for??

[Ros2710]

Sounds to me like they are only now sorting out 2004/5 final joint award.
I presume she is entitled to payments in her own right on a single claim since May 2004.
You didn't say the actual reason for the overpayment in 2003/4 - This should be shown somewhere on the award or the tax credit helpline should be able to tell you.

[lynzfa]

hi,just to update everyone i got a letterfrom the courts this morning to say i am at court on the 27th april.im quite worried now as i didnt want to go to court and dont know what i have to do.

[sinking_fast]

If i was you lynz i would go over to the tax credit overpayment site, they are great on there, and should be able to give you all the help and advice you need, mines only at the adjudication stage so i don't know what advice to give, sorry i haven't helped much.

[bazak1]

it sounds like a trip to the C A B is needed. they'll help where all else fails.

[lynzfa]

thanks i think i might need to go to the citizens advice.i ma really worried as i dont know what will happen when it gets to court

[graham1968]

After much too'ing and fro'ing with the tax credit people, and receiving 3 reasons for not waiving my £1000 overpayment I went to see my M.P.

2 weeks later received a shower of new tax credit advices through. No covering letter, and we couldnt work out what was going on (my wife is an accountant so that tells you how poor the advices were).

We then received £800 back credits through as they had waived and reassessed us from 2003. Finally received a letter signed by Dawn Primarolo telling us that we should never have had to go to so much effort to get them to listen, and she was very sorry.
She refused to pay compensation for time and effort not to mention stress, so I'm off to small claims court with her letter to lodge a claim.

go and see your M.P. as they have a hotline to people in the tax credit office that have more than one brain cell.

[meagain]

Originally Posted by graham1968

go and see your M.P. as they have a hotline to people in the tax credit office that have more than one brain cell.

MPs do indeed have a hotline to the Director's Office at TCO in Preston. Was the letter from the PMG hand-signed?

[graham1968]

MeAgain,

Yes, the letter was hand signed and not on the usual HMRC paper.

As I'm here I'll take the opportunity to apologies to anyone from HMRC tax credits who I may have offended with my previous comment about 'more than one brain cell'. On reflection I'll say it's a failure of the entire system, in the main unattributable to the hard working staff who try their best but are given poor training and tools to do the job.

[welshcakes]

I am currently in dispute over a 2003/4 'overpayment'... I have discovered that the reason they base this on is that their records state I had a partner during that period and didn't declare it ie so I wasn't entitled to the money. Thing is, I was totally and utterly single until 2006, lived on my own, didn't borrow or lend any money, never had even a one night stand (I sound rather boring but that's the fact of how it was).

I've filled in one of their dispute forms and put in a cover letter entirely refuting their reason behind the decision. I feel angry because it feels like I'm being accused of being a liar and a fraud when I am an open and honest person. Very upsetting and invasive.

[kao]

If you genuinely believe you are in the right - get your local MP involved!

I haven't read all the posts in this thread but I thought I'd share my experiences of tax credits to see if it's of any benefit

In Oct 2003 I gave up work to go on maternity leave. We'd started claiming tax credits in august and we were getting a payment through weekly. When she was about 8 weeks old I realised I hadn't notified them of my change of circumstance. I called and told them I was no longer working and gave my baby's birth date. They backpaid some money for me as I qualified for the 'baby element' and upped the general amount they were paying us. They also started paying us working tax credit based on my partner's income. As we had dropped over a third of our combined income and I'd given them the fugures I trusted that the amounts we were now being paid were correct.
Little did I know what I was in for...

When the renewal pack came in June/July 2004 I completed it accurately and returned it. In August they stopped our payments without warning and advised us we owed around £3000 back to them.

I wrote letters of complaint and appeals but nothing changed. When my son was born in 2005 I didn't bother to notify them since they weren't paying us anyway. By then the local MP was involved and was handling things on my behalf.
Life was pretty damn miserable. As well as looking after two very young children and money being tight, I felt I was being labelled a 'scrounger' by the inland revenue. Every attempt I made to resolve things was thwarted - they just didn't want to know. I found out at some point that they'd recalculated our income based on the wrong figures when I'd made the first call after my daughter was born. They'd actually put our COMBINED income from April until when I called, around January, as £2200!!! What did they think we did for a living??
There was a change of MP due to the election and a second MP handled the case for a few months.
Then I moved house to a new area and a third MP took over.
I was absolutely determined throughout that no way were they going to win against me when it was obviously their error. They finally admitted it was their error but then stuck to their guns saying I should have noticed. I started back at square one trying to explain that as I had dropped such a large percentage of our income I EXPECTED the money to increase and therefore didn't see the need in checking their figures when this did happen.

I know this is a long-winded post, but the whole ordeal was so much more so!
Eventually, some time around spring last year, they finally cracked and gave up. They paid me back every penny they had stopped from us and cancelled the outstanding sum. It had been 2 years of stress, hassle and tears, but I'd finally won. Do you know what I did when they called to advise me they'd ruled in my favour? I cried down the phone.

If you're in the right, never back down.

[JenniBee8]

I too used to work in a tax credit call centre and I was so glad when I left as I genuinely felt sorry for so many people who fell victim to this shoddy system, after a year and a half of working there even I failed to understand why a lot of overpayments ocurred, and I had to refer so many cases over.

I feel sorry for customers who are expected to understand how these overpayments happened, I am just glad I don't work there now. Even though I know by this thread it is still hapenning, I suppose it's the 'out of sight out of mind' idea.

[DANIELLESMUM]

Hi Guys

I have been reading this thread with interest and note that quite a few people posting on here are actually ex tax credit staff, so I wondered if anyone around could tell me what a "Code of Practice 26" form is.

Basically my scenario is, I believe I have always given accurate info, and I check my awards notices, and everything was fine but then a couple of years ago I got two letters saying we have been overpaid. I am going to have dig these out (but it's unlikely I can as it was so long ago). I think one was for £2900 and one for £1500 or thereabouts.

I was devastated and I rang up straight away, and the lady I spoke to basically told me to ignore them and that it was just because I hadn't confirmed our end of year salary declarations by the cut off date and so the Renewals dept had terminated our claim. She said this makes you appear to owe all that you have been paid, and so the letter is very standard. She said now I had rung up and confirmed salaries I could just ignore the letters.

So we have, and no more letters have ever been received and everything has been fine but..... my hubby got a call out of the blue on his mobile phone last thursday from the tax office. We have no idea where they got this number from, and as he's an HGV driver he cant easily spend time on calls. He rang it from our home number on Friday evening and it was the tax office saying we owe £4500 from 2004\2005, which we believe must be the two letters I was told to ignore.

He told them this, and he also told them (correctly) that we have had no letters since, and that I just keep confirming our earnings and the cost of childcare, and that I have spoken to the tax office several times since and no one has ever mentioned anything.

This must be a mistake because we owe nothing, but the lady at the Tax Office said they never send any further notices, and they just send the initial letters (sent over two years ago) and that they are now going to take us to court, or... we give all our outgoing details (mortage, poll tax, food etc) and we come to an arrangement!?!

We can't possibly owe this and I so rung up yesterday, and spoke to the Tax Office again and basically I told her the full story about the letters and what i was told previously (ignore letters, these are sent as standard if you don't renew in time) and she seemed to agree with me, and said she could see on their system the letters were sent, but then she could see that I subsequently confirmed the salaries, and everything had been fine since.

She said she would send me a "Code of Practice 26" form to fill in, and while it's all "in dispute" it's probably best if the payments were suspended.

I have told them they can willingly stop the payments because I don't want to get any further money which will just be demanded back again.

Anyway, I am now wondering if a "Code of practice 26" a document that allows me to complain and dispute the way my tax credits have been handled, (which is how it was made to sound to me over the phone yesterday), or.... is it something else that will just continue to lead to me paying back £4500 that I don't owe.

Any advice appreciated....

Thanks

Danielles Mum

[sequenci]

Originally Posted by mariep

tax credit overpayment


Please visit this site.

just took a look at the site, we would love to have something like this that we can refer our clients to although it must be said that the design with all the bright colours and pictures is very off-putting.

[DANIELLESMUM]

Thanks for the link. I have only had a very quick look but it's an ace website and it will really help. Your scales have been duly clicked

Your template form info is very similar to what I need to write and so I will be stealing bits of it, hope thats OK

I now feel confident enough to say "Bring it on tax office!!!"


Thanks loads


Danielles Mum

[JENNDOUG]

i am the same phoned thm to say i had a partner now so they stopped my tax credit an we re applied it took about 3 months then we got £2000 i had phoned them to query it but it was said to be correct,know they want back £1000 i am raiging as we dont have hat sort of money 2 pay back.