Hi, you will see from the first page that I am sort of in the same boat as you at the moment. I wondered if you had contacted Tax Credits about this yet and what their response was? I know exactly how you are feeling and how frightening all this is but please try and stay calm, this is especially important as you say you are on Prozac, it is so easy to tip the balance. Hope you dont mind me replying like this but I wanted to offer my support. Take care and please update as so many people do not.

I really want to know why I have been told to wait until 24th June to report the information, I do actually remember the guy on the helpline saying that would be when my award notice would come out. Surely they could have taken things into account on saturday (the day after I originally renewed) since my claim was not even sent for processing at that point? Its very confusing and a bit frustrating. I really want to put things right so I can return to some kind of normality again. I am moving on the 27th of this month so will have to inform them of that change. When I mentioned it on Saturday the guy said that I would need to inform them of that at the time it happened but, again, not to inform them of the childcare issue until 24th June. Anyway Im going round in loops now, I guess I will wait for the right advice I have been reading so far on this forum. Thanks for the welcome!

OK, deep breath. I have been claiming childcare for my son (age 9) since he began preschool when he was about 2. When he went began school I reduced the childcare to £23 a week since I was using a childminder only in the school holidays. I have no receipts from this woman although I am sure she will verify the time he spent with her. I used her for a short time before using a playcentre every now and again but not every week of the holidays like I was claiming for. I havent used childcare for probably about 3 years yet have never reduced my childcare costs to £nil. I know this is wrong and I feel so bad about it but I just want to get the facts down for the time being so Im trying not to get bogged down in horrible emotions (hard). I renewed my claim last friday and I advised the helpline that I would no longer require childcare. She asked my when it had stopped and I panicked and gave her the last school holiday date. She then asked me the name of the childcare provider and the name of my son. After renewing my claim so dishonestly I felt so bad that I rang the helpline back the next day to inform then that I had been receiving chilcare (I did say for 2010-2011) when I didnt need it. I was told to ring back after the 24th June with this information! I really cannot understand this. Why wouldnt they take that information the day after my original renwewal? I want to ring back today and tell them everything but I am so unsure of dates that I dont really know where to begin. If I go back 5 years to when my son started school and calculate how much childcare I have been paid it equates to about £6,000. Given that I have used some childcare my overpayment is a little less than this although proving it would be hard. Also there is the issue of fraud and all that wrangle that goes with it. Does anyone have any advice for me? Getting incredibly anxious. Thanks so much in advance.