I am not sure if I will qualify for legal aid? I did the calculator thing on the legal advise website and it said that I did but not sure if I did it right?

Also i went to see the CAB. They said just send off the contract and payment record that the childminder has given me for this year( She has given me a signed photocopy of her record,) and dont phone them until they phone me. The letter from Tax Credits says that if you cannot get the original receipts to phone them . What should I do?

cancelled

Hi there folks.some advise please .. so scared and its making me ill. I have been overclaiming for the hours that my children are with the childminder. I have been claiming 135 a week and its about 75 a week, now this is a shortfall of 4000 this year. I did have a contract with the childminder about 3 years ago for approximatly the the hours claimed but as the years have gone by we have changed the contract verbally on several occasions and I have done 2 further contracts with different and fewer hours which I failed to declare. To be honest I knew the hours were less but I did not work out how much less which I know is my own fault. I buried my head in the sand as I got used to the extra money coming in and kept using it to pay off my overdraft which never got paid off. I have not been getting receipts of my childminder and giving her cash. i and asked her for a copy of her records for the last year. I have always paid her cash and we agreed to how much I had paid her for this year which was £3000 pound. She did not have up to date records and I had to remind her what I had been paying her and she agreed as she knows I am a good regular payer. I asked her to check what she had me down for the previous year and she said she had only got me paying her 1800 and 1200 for the year before that!!! I said how can that be as we have been doing the same hours and sometimes more and I know I have paid her more. She said that this is what she put through for the tax man and she can't change it now and I have signed it. I have been really stupid and signed for attendance and her records without checking them, She would often come up to me with for loads of signatures for her books as I was just rushing out the door and I would sign away not checking and I trusted her to put the correct amound in. I know i only have myself to blame for signing and not checking. She admitted to me that she has not been puting through my cash payments but I signed them so it was my bad luck. How can I prove otherwise? Only cashpoint withdrawals but that does not prove anything. I am so scared as I have been using this childminder for 6 years and I am not sure what I have been signing for and they will use her records as I dont have any reciepts. I am going to ring them on Tuesday and tell them there has been an overpayment and ask them for their help to try and sort it out. I hope that they do not procecute me. I too like previous people on this forum am completely distressed by this, I have not been able to face work and keep imagining myself having to sell my house as I will not have a job if they procecute me. If they go back over the years I could owe them a fortune, i guestimate 25,000 I am willing to pay it all back , I could remortgage my house if I still have my job. I am on tablets that the doctor gave me to calm me down as I was not functioning but they are just zombieing me out so dont want to take them. I know these things drag on and I do not know if I am strong enough to look on the bright side and hope. I have been having suicidal thoughts. So scared.