Thanks for your response. As I said I am well aware that it was my failure in not reading renewal notices properly. I would probably state that this has been down to my anxiety and depressive episodes in the last 2-3 years but I am not disputing it at all and accept that they will want to recover the money. It helps to know what terms overpayment's are recovered on as I wouldn't have been aware of the 25% otherwise.

Tnx for that. I am going to the CAB next week. I don't expect them to write it off at all, am well aware that they won't accept liability especially as I have been at ffault further down the line. I will accept whatever decision they make to recover the payments although my main concern is that if they reduce my current payments to zero then that will leave me in a even more dire financial situation.

Tnx!

Hello. I've read through a few previous posts related to my issues but I also wanted to post myself. I am a single parent 2 kids. Up until the first quarter of 2009 I worked in a salaried job and used childcare etc, I was made redundant and went self employed. I paid my child carer 2 months notice and then rang and informed TC's of the change and that I wasn't utilizing childcare myself anymore. It transpired towards the end of last year though that I was still being paid the chld care allowance. I didn't look at my 2 interim renewals properly which is my fault and failed to notice. I have a simple understanding of what the thresholds for TC's are and thought that amount i was being paid was commensurate with my drop in salary on becoming self employed. more than half pay cut from what i earned when fully employed. I noticed this when I was sent a compliance letter in November 2010 and started looking back through my old awards and accounts. Being an idiot, I panicked and rang and said my childcare had finished the previous month as I panicked about them stopping all my tax credits totally and not being able to afford to live. In the last 2 and half years since becoming self employed, I have had to deal with one ex partner stopping all child maintenance, he is self employed also and the CSA have almost no power in this issue. Another issue arose in which that same ex partners house was repossessed in autumn 2009 and it transpired that my name was still on the mortgage at the time of repossession despite having separated in 2001 and finalised a divorced in 2005. This has affected my credit rating greatly. I haven't even had the will to write to experian etc to try and remove myself from this debt. I became seriously depressed, was prescribed Prozac fro the GP, was seeing a counselor on an emergency basis due to suicidal feelings. I suffered a close bereavement suddenly in May 2010, this affected my depression more. Literally every day has been a struggle just to get through whilst keeping my head together for the sake of my children. My salary as a self employed person reduced again in Winter 2010 I built up council tax arrears and missed a payment on the mortgage. I am now sorting out a DMP with the National Debtline to sort my credit card etc debts out but now have this TC issue since then sent a letter saying please send the contracts and/or receipts from Feb 2009 to November 2010 for childcare which of course I can't. I had come off the medication and was dealing with my issues with counselling but now am back on them, not eaten all week hardly and have lost nearly a stone, I suspect due to stress and nervous exhaustion. Terrified beyond belief they might prosecute and i would lose my children etc. I plan on writing a letter fully disclosing the issue and my part but also pointing out that I did inform them initially of the change. Please can anyone advise.