Tax Credit Overpayment

[lynzfa]

I Recieved A Letter This Morning To Say I Had Been Overpaid £558 In Tax Credit For Last Year And Was Told I Had To Pay It Back Or Go To Court.i Was Told That If You Had Told Them About Changes As They Happen You Do Not Have To Pay Back The Overpayments.is This True?and If It Is What Do I Do Next As I Cant Afford To Pay Back 558 Pounds

[danler]

This happened to a friend of mine in the second year of the tax credits. Because his wife was a temporary school teacher she had earn't more than she had estimated. He phones the Tax Credits office and asked if the money can be deducted from the current years tax credit. It meant that they didn't recieve any money for the next year but at least they didn't have to find any money.

[mackem]

We were told that we were overpaid three years ago even though we told them on the phone numerous times that things were wrong on the form but they still did not change any of the details on the forms when they were sent to our address. Then me and my wife filled in the tax forms and sent them off, my wife made a liitle more than the previous year and once again we received a letter from them stating that they overpaid us only when we spoke to them they could not give me a reason to why this had been decided, they have given us a form to appeal. They now state that we owe them 4500 to them but we have not recieved anything from them as we having been paying back our overpayments for so long. I have now just recieved the appeal form we wondered if anyone knows how to fill or word these forms.

[TAY]

When we had an overpayment we were able to repay using the following years credits, in fact they did this automatically.
If you are to receive anymore credits this year check to see if it will be coming out of this payment if not you should be able to request this. If you are not receiving any more then request a reasonable amount to repay per week this should not be a problem i believe it states this somewhere. You could always try an appeal if you think it may be wrong.

[mackem]

i have recieved an appeal form i was wondering if anyone knew how to word these so i would be sucessful in my appeal against the overpayments

[meagain]

You want to tell them that you had "good reason to believe the payments made to us were correct". If your award notices showed correct information, you are entitled to assume their information was correct, and thus that your payments were correct. You need to demonstrate due diligence, and this is best shown by:

* Letter or phonecall when information on the award notice is incorrect (shows you have checked it and followed it up)
* Letter or phonecall whenever circumstances changed (e.g. if you left work, you didn't wait a month before telling them).

See here for more.

[mackem]

Many thanks MEAGAIN your e-mail was a lot of help as we find this system terribly unfair and will make many families live on the poverty line. Your help is very grateful

[michee]

I have had problems with them on two different tax years due to my husband being in and out of work - both times it was because they had not updated my information.

Two times they stopped my money completely - when my husband was out of work - so you can imagine the financial hardship this caused as I have two young children. (I've just joined to look at reclaiming bank charges caused by this)

They do have a complaints number you can ring, I don't know it but you can request it, but it took me two days of constant ringing to get through - but when I did they resolved my complaints within days.

Don't know if that can help you or not, but I would try the complaints number.

Persistance is the key with the tax credits system, I rang every day without fail until they sent me some money.

[Kerrie78]

I actually telephoned this morning re an overpayment. We always give info to them at every possible stage, but because my husband is a driver and sometimes works more hours some weeks than others it is hard to give an exact figure to them.
We were overpaid in 03-04 tax year so they claimed that back. We were then overpaid again in 04-05 but this has been reclaimed too. Now for 05-06 they tell me they have overpaid us by £489.75. Can they claim this back aswell? Doesn't it had to be over a certain figure? I think that to be only £489 out on our actual wages was a damn good guess.
I am currently on maternity leave from work so our tax credit is slightly higher at the mo but they will leave us with nothing if they start clawing at it again because I haven't got a wage anymore.

[sweetstreetuk]

hi i appealed against their request to pay back overpayment and won £3500 in total it turns out that the computer had miss read my forms (which had been filled in correctly) it had down that me and hubby were working 74 hours a week between us and earning no wage!!! incidently 03/04 was the year of massive overpayments and i know of several people who won on appeal go for it, good luck, i don't know where you stand on claiming the charges that incurred as a result of them stopping your money go for the bank on that 1!!!

[Mairi]

I worked for this mob twice.1st time was as the system started. You wouldn't beleive how bad it was. Received letters from people that had 3 kids to support on £40 per week, then others that earned £50k a year and were getting full WTC. "Please help, my kids have been eating beans + toast for 2 months" or "please STOP All payments as I'm not entitled to them"
Shocking.
We were overpaid too, "you have received £1200 in overpayment" therefore you owe us £1500", WHAT???????
2nd time i worked there i lasted 2 weeks. Finished on the Friday, Monday morning i had a call to offer me promotion. Crazy...

[Stopthethieves]

I had a letter in March thanking me for informing them of a change of circumstances and that I had been overpaid by the tune of #1500 and they wanted to know how I was going to pay it back!!!


I have NEVER claimed WTC or any other benefit before and don't know what this was all about. I rang them and they said they would get back to me.

A month got a letter saying someonehad tried to fradulenty claim WTC in my name.

I don't trust the DWP at all.

Regards

[MICHFERGIE]

Originally Posted by sweetstreetuk

hi i appealed against their request to pay back overpayment and won £3500 in total it turns out that the computer had miss read my forms (which had been filled in correctly) it had down that me and hubby were working 74 hours a week between us and earning no wage!!! incidently 03/04 was the year of massive overpayments and i know of several people who won on appeal go for it, good luck, i don't know where you stand on claiming the charges that incurred as a result of them stopping your money go for the bank on that 1!!!

I too have the same problem the computer has done the same with my form, I have therefore asked them to send me the form I am taking this all the way my amount is £6400, i AM AWAITING THE FORM AND THEN SEEKING LEGAL ADVICE any other advice would be appreciated

[alibobsy]

Originally Posted by Stopthethieves

I don't trust the DWP at all.

Sorry to be picky but as someone who has worked for the DWP I have to point out that tax credits are inland revenue not DWP. I can tell you we have just as many problems getting through to the call centre and getting the info we need about tax credits to process someones other benefits. Having spoken to staff who transferred across to IR and from training officers who have transferred back into the DWP the big problem they have is most of the staff are undertrained. We were taught how to manually calculate someones benefit then put that on the computer system. This meant you understood exactly how the payments were calculated and could spot any problems with system calculations. Unfortunately the current moves on training in all departments seems to be just to be given enough training how to process a claim on the system nothing more. The trouble is this can lead to a "computer says no" mentality.
As all big companies the DWP and IR are subject to the data protection act so just like the banks you could ask for all your information relating to the calculation of you tax credits. I don't know if they would refuse to do it now but we used to do manual calculations to confirm someones rate of pension if they requested it. Might see if I can find out how the calculations for tax credits are actually done, I'm convinced mine isn't right, haven't been paid for nearly 2 years cos of "overpayments" even tho we have always informed them of any changes.
good luck
ali

[MICHFERGIE]

Sorry I do not understand what you mean

[mariep1208]

tax credit overpayment


Please visit this site. A group of us have banded together to offer advice and support to others who have been poorly treated. We have regional contacts and we plan to take action against this unfair system. Please sign the petition when you visit, there's power in numbers.

We are currently in the process of speaking to a solicitor regarding a pro-bono case. Get in touch and together we can make a change!!

An interesting site...out of curiosity what has been the initial advice on the propsects of success with the Art 6 claim in Judicial Review...from the lawyers???
I ask becasue I have previously considered the same provisions and found that Art 6 may not be interpreted or applied so widely as to help in this matter. The real issue appears to be the Tax Credit legislation making no provisions for claiming official error by those overpaid. Art 7 may not be construed so widely as to apply outside of criminal matters....

Is there a chance with a claim for Judicial review???

[lynzfa]

i have recieved a letter from the debt collections section of the inland revenue for the tax credits i had supposedly been overpid to say someone will be coming to see me on friday.it has now gone from 588 to £988 of overpayments.I rang the tax credits again and they said i was overpaid as when i informed them about my changes as they happened they continued with the original claim and also paid me for the new claim.How they managed that i have no idea as i apparantly had been overpaid £567 in one week dont think so i dont remeber recieving anything like that.I would of had a good week then if i had but i know i didnt.I will be filling in the appeal form so its fingers crossed for now to see what happens

[Kerrie78]

Thanks awful Lynzfa. I hope you suceed in your appeal but they have toughened the guidelines. I read yesterday that out of 30,000 appeals only 100 people were successful so it doesn't bode well for us I'm afraid.

My claim has become more muddled now aswell, because last November I went on maternity leave. I was getting £108.60 per week as maternity pay up until May 06 when it ended. From then til now I have received no pay from work as i am classed as being on unpaid maternity leave.
When I phoned the tax credits peeps in Nov I was told that my award would be increased because they disregard the first £100 of maternity pay. Great I thought. My tax credits went up to £82 per week and have remained at that figure.
Now they have asked for the actual figure on my p60 and because it says I earned over £6000 they will say I have been paid too much. I actually earned a lot less than that because of the maternity pay figure - which they are supposed to disregard.