hey guys, i gave an estimate of mine and my partners income at 15000 overall for 11-12. however i forgot that i was on sick for 4 months which means our overall income was 10200. i called tax credits and told them this and they said that i have 2 wait 4 weeks to find out whether we can get any payment. we were getting around 90 pound child tax and 20 pound working tax. we have two children so how much per week do you think we were down by and how much could we be owed?

Hi I know lots of people on this site have been through this, but the threads got confusing and as i am panicing, decided to start my own. Got a letter today to say that they were looking at my 2011-12 single claim and they had used credit reports to say that they thought a MR XXXXx lived at the address. I am holding my hands up to this overisight on my part, i changed the council tax etc, but didnt do this one. They want me to call them before 21-07-12, has anyone else been in this situation? shall i just admit my mistake over the phone and say i will pay back what is owed etc? or shall i write a letter??? please help!! I will loose my job if i get prsecuted or a conviction as i work with children. any advice would be grateful. thanks

I'm dealing with my new partners Tax Credits claim. So has a large historical overpayment that is being repaid by weekly deduction from her payments. Two days ago, out of the blue she received a letter demanding immediate payment of £1000+ or they'll send in the debt collectors. She has no idea why the letter has suddenly arrived as she has been on a repayment arrangement for years. I intend to investigate the whole arrears business as it seems to be a bit of a shambles. Question: Should I put in an FOI request on her behalf so that I can get the entire case history? Or is a different approach recommended? If FOI is the way to go then what's the appropriate address to send the request to? Many thanks.

hi I`m trying to renew my tax credits, have few problems with it. I`m self-employed, so do I have to enter my income gross after my expenses taken off? for example I earned 15000, my expenses were 5000, so do I enter 10000 as my income from self-employment? Another issue with my wife income, she was on Statuatory Maternity Pay all year, except 4-5 weeks when she was on holiday leave. Please be patient, this is complicate April and part of May 2011 - SMP she got pay for it 901.11 GBP than June, July - unpaid SMP August and few days in September - Holiday leave and again, from September 2011 to March 2011 she was on SMP - got pay for those moths 2713.82 GBP So she was on SMP for about 47 weeks in whole year. Now I`m going through deductions on working sheet from my renewal pack. Should I just get her SMP payment for whole year (2713 GBP) and divide by 47 weeks? That will be easy solution. or do I have to go through each week and check how much she was paid for it? They saying if your payments were more than 100 GBP a week enter 100 for each week, should I do so in case of April and part of May? For December she was paid 424.32 GBP for January 467.90 GBP Other months were under 400 GBP so that work out under 100 GBP a week. Hope someone can help work it out, otherwise I will have to give them call and thats not gonna be easy one to explain on phone If you have any questions just ask Thanks

Hi , So I posted my tax credits annual review 6 weeks ago and I have not had any replies. Not had any change in circumstances although my income has slightly increased. I have heard so many horror stories regarding tax credits complience officers doing checks on claims and I am wondering if this is why mine is taking so long, never had to wait this long before. However I was wondering of they would have sent me a letter to state the possibly needed more info if this was the case. Please help as the deadline is approaching and I dread going to the bank every week incase there is no money there. Thanks

Please can someone help, we dont know what to do. We have had a letter today from HMRC saying we have ben overpaid £6000 from April 2011-April 2012 Oct 2010 my husband and i started new jobs within weeks of each other and HMRC were informed. In April 2011 i informed them of our earnings for that year. During 2011, we bought a house and moved to a completely different area, new job is about an hour away now. At NO TIME did we receive any correspondence from HMRC and to be perfectly hoenst never gave it a thought. I renewed as per usual a coupleof weeks back when the renewal pack came. Told them our earnings and that was that. Then the letter lands through our door today....£6000 over payment. I called and the woman said we should have known from our wage slips we had earned far more than we had told them, i never even thought about it! But if we have been overpaid then we will pay it back, but i dont know how we are goign to to that. We are in debt up to our eyeballs and are trying to work hard to pay it back...my hisband is doing 50+ hours some weeks to try and get us straight. What HMRC use ie: before tax pay is rubbish, we earn nowhere near that once all stoppages have come out. We have no spare cash and im seriously worried. I suffer with anxiety as it is and im having a meltdown right now. Also, when i worked out the payments, they paid us £5000last year so how can we owe over £6K?? My husband is going mad, he's saying that it cant be right, Please help I am worried to death.

Just wondering if anyone can give any insight as to the avarage and absolute maximum times a new claim for tax credits should take? I'm asking because right now at this moment my 'new' claim is coming up to week 25 with no resolution and now HMRC are saying that they have lost my daughter's documents (birth certificate and passport) and can't finish processing and get the claim in to force with payment until they are recorded and verified, no word of a lie 25 weeks and still not 1 person can tell me why it has taken so long or why when i asked to send documents myself i was told either no i couldn't or no i didn't need to because they would verify them with child benefit office......:mad2: Lied to numerous times by both advisers and managers at the 'help' center call line saying they would call me back to let me know what was going on (3 times i was told that in 2 days each time by a different line manager each time didn't get the call even the last 1 that i was meant to have by close of the business day at 8pm friday just last week), lied to by both advisers and managers about time scales for processing and delivery of letters (ranging from 7 days to 4 weeks to 26 weeks with just about every number in between given at each phone call to them) lied to by both adviser and manager about letters that had been sent to me with 1 reason being they didn't have the full address (funny because the date the letter was meant to have been sent out i had a confirmation letter of formal complaint that was addressed correctly issued the same day...) and finally (I think..) lied to about 'action dates' that had been noted on the system but absolutely no-one could figure out what the action was meant to be or if it had been done???.... I have been in touch with my local MP who has replied to me and i await the outcome of, I have been to CAB and have another appointment with a supervisor as adviser was disgusted not only that it is taking so long but because they said desperately need help not only on the income that is being missed out on but the fact that the only proof that we have got of our daughter's identity is marked on HMRC computer system as missing after receipt and has not been processed and we cannot replace them because they were issued in Denmark where she was born and 1 cannot be issued without the other and the fact that there is no other was we can prove she even exists..... Sorry to ramble on but I am at breaking point now, the total owed to us for CTC is nearing £1500, debts are mounting etc I just want to know the longest anyone has had to wait for claim to be processed and if anyone has had this much hassle and deceit from HMRC, I have spent so much time on the phone to them over the last 3-4 months that if i didn't have a large call allowance on my mobile which was usable on their number just about all that is now owing would barely cover my phone bill.....yes i have a full and complete record of each and every call to them from day 1 of asking for the claim pack and my own recordings of the conversations i have had with them since i made first contact with my local MP 2 months ago (100+ calls to them...sickening...)

Afternoon all quick explanation of my situation 1) my son was due to return to college in Sept 2009 - for various reasons he did not take up the place allocated to him - we were entitled to CTC up to April 2010 (if he had stayed on) - we informed HRMC (late - think it was around Nov 2009) & ended up with an overpayment of £2200 which we have been repaying thru our subsequent awards. 2) my wife is now working full time & also taking on a lot of overtime & I have taken a part time evening job (on top of getting my own business off the ground) 3) now we have gone over the £17000 limit (2011/2012) & the WTC from April till now (approx £1000) is an overpayment. 4) we lost everything in 2010, so have no assets - rent, CT & utilities take up most of our income so we have little money spare. With the award stopped (approx £80.00 per week) things will be very tight - let alone repaying the overpayments. It seems we made the mistake of taking on more employment to try to get back on our feet. Total overpayment is approx £2000 - the letter states we can make arrangements over 12 months to repay, but to do that would mean approx £170 per month on top of losing £320. I can't see how we can do this. Any advice would be gratefully received. rgds Hector

I've just received a letter from HMRC regarding my tax credit award. It says that the information I've given is not the same as the information they currently hold. When I checked, it says on the award notice that I am in receipt of Higher Rate Care component when in fact I get Higher Rate Mobility (chronic severe RA). Because nothing has changed and because I wanted to get it done as I kept forgetting, I didn't check it and just filled in the figures and signed it - stupidly I know. Anyway, they're now investigating us and I'm panicking about what they will do. OH says not to worry and he'll deal with them on Monday. His argument is that we've never said we got HR Care , only HR Mobility so it's their fault not ours but I think they're more likely to say, quite rightly in hindsight, that I should have checked it before I sent it. So what are they likely to do? The other thing that's strange is that OH only posted the return two days ago but the letter from them is dated 28th June. It says we made a claim on 6th April but we didn't - or is that just administrative? As usual these things happen on a Friday afternoon so I've got to stew all weekend. Any advice would be gratefully received

from april 2013 with the roll out of UC claiments who apply for a crisis loan will no longer be issued with cash... from this time they will only be issued with a voucher to use in a recycling centre, or store cards which will prohibit the buying of alcohol and cigarettes.... link here http://atosvictimsgroup.co.uk/2012/06/29/welfare-cuts-welcome-to-the-era-of-vouchers-for-the-poor/

universal credits regs are out http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/uc-draft-regs-2012.pdf

Hi. I was just wandering if anyone knows how long and when a tax credit underpayment will be credited to my account. Basicly i was underpaid my tax credits last year I submitted my renewal about 2 weeks ago does any one know if the payment will go in on my usual allocated day of the week (mine being a thursday) or will they pay it in on any day? I looked back to last year and that was a thursday but not sure if that was just coincidental. Many thanks

Is this normal? Do they have any right to know this?

Hello I have just received a letter from HMRC in which they are going to review my 2011-12 tax credit claims. They are asking me for contract or receipts from the Childcare provider. I have 2 children, was paying Childcare for the first child until August 2008, then when the second was born I stopped sending my daughter to nursery and I looked after her, so basically at renewal I never told that I was not paying any more Childcare but still getting the benefits... In the letter they say that if they do not receive this information by 10 July 2012 they will use the information they have to decide my entitlement and they will remove childcare which is fair enough. Then I have to send the tax credit renewal form by 31 July which this time have to complete properly. My quesion is: should I reply to their letter or not? If I don't they say they will remove the childcare element which I am fine with. Or they will carry on their investigation regardless I do reply or not? your advice is much appreciated! regards mazingaz

Hi, I am new to this and now at the end of my tether. I don't know where else to turn to for advice. In 2002 after a brief period of unemployment, i was accepted to study as a student midwife. My then partner and father of my only child (who is now 15) wasn't happy as he worked away for long periods of time as a HGV driver and thought that my course would interfere with my spending quality time with our child, so we split. As he was away for work for long periods of time, it was pointless moving him moving into a property and paying rent for a place that would remain empty, so he moved into the spare room. when he returned home, for a few days at a time, that was when I did my course work or shifts at the hospital. He only contributed towards the mortgage and our childs maintenance. I recieved no other help from him, either financially or emotionally. Because of this, I applied for and got working and child tax credits, based on being a single parent (which I was!!) This continued until I qualified and got a job as a midwife in 2006 when this benefit ceased. I casually saw a few people during this period and so did my ex partner. The first letter arrived in 2008 (if I recall), stating that I had fraudulently claimed benefits as a single parent, when in fact they knew that my ex partner had been living there. They were asking for approx £3,500 to be repaid for the year 2003-2004. I spoke to someone on the phone, and they were made aware of the facts of our residence and that we were not in a relationship and at the time that seemed to make the DWP happy, they even turned up at the door unannounced and they were shown the living arrangements. We were still living by this arrangement as it suited the needs of our child, my ex still worked away from home and neither of us had met anyone serious enough to change these arrangements. I heard nothing again until 2010, when the DWP now stated that I owed approx £12,000 for a different time period to the last one stated. This time I asked for proof of what they were claiming and A breakdown of the figure that they were requesting. I heard nothing back. UNTIL February 2012 when I received another letter, this time requesting £21,000 for yet a another differnt time period. And this one threatening court action. I really cannot take any more of this harrassment. I am still paying student debts off, I dont live in a palace, my house is falling to bits as I never have any spare money to fix her up properly and I work full time hours in a very stressful job, so I could do without this stress at home as i know that it is starting to affect my judgement at work. Can somebody please offer some advice!!!!

Hi, I am looking for some advice. I have just renewed my tax credits over the phone using exact income from P60's and have notified of 3 other changes at the same time. I am worried that my claim may be investigated again as last renewal, which I did by post, I used estimated income as I did not have the P60's at the time. When my second son was born last September, I rang them to inform them of the change and around a month later, received a letter staing that I had provided wrong income information for the previous year, even though I ticked estimate and still had time to give the proper ones. I then had my tax credits cut, making it very tight for income, so I returned to work early from maternity leave. I am worried that because of last year's investigation, the same will happen again, also because I made 3 changes in one go. Help, this is worrying me a lot and making em go through all sorts of scenarios in my head that I will be sent to prison etc. Thanks

Hi Hope someone can help, am separated from my husband ( not legally yet) I live at my parents with my two children ( the second of which was born whilst we were trying a reconciliation that didn't work). I'm self employed and claim as a single person, I'm at my mums whilst trying to grow the business and save to buy a house. Have been discussing the situation with my ex , I 'm ready to move on from my mums. He has agreed to help me buy a house for myself and the kids to live, if i sell my flat to help with the deposit my parents will also help. The advantage for him is that his children have a family home and its an investment for him as he'll own 50% and the advantage for me is that we get to live in a home i would not be able to afford to buy on my own My question how will a joint application for a mortgage look to HMRC. We are not an in a relationship and don't plan to be. Can prove he lives elsewhere. I guess having the house is more important than the tax credits but I'll struggle without them for a good while whilst paying the mortgage. Just checking before we go ahead.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160388/Controversial-plan-stop-striking-workers-receiving-tax-credits.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

The facts, we received a letter saying we (my partner & I) have been selected for review and asked for recepits and invoices for childcare over the last year. I have two children ages 2 & 3. From, Sept 11 both went into childcare for a full 4 days a week because my partner started college. We claimed accurately for childcare up to this point through our tax credits . We changed this and was awarded £150.00 per week. Now the problem, my partner was eligible to apply for "Financial Assitance" from the college she attends, initially she lost and then appealed and they agreed up to £8000 grant which included childcare. So therefore from Sept effectively our childcare was paid for by the college through this assistance. Because she was nil'd then appealed payment didn't really commence until October / November time. We (i think stupidlly) thought nothing more of the tax credits we received because we both worked myself full time and at that point my partner did 18hrs per week on average on thought we were entitled to the payments, because we work and used childcare. It wasn't until my partner came out of work from one of her jobs and her hours reduced to under 7 that we looked again at what the tax credits form say and state "what you actually pay" as soon as we realized we contacted them, this was end of January this year told them our childcare was paid for. Our payments were slashed and we assumed that, if it was incorrect, they would have adjusted our payments accordingly for the remainder of the year. We now have the "letter" problem we are encountering is similar to others, those bills we did pay and receipts recieved are probably polluting the earth somewhere, we didn't keep them. The childcare provider has given us charges & payments received and the college has said all they can do is re-issue the award letter stating she is entitiled up to £8000 but did confirm verbally we were nowhere near that limit. My questions are really: Did we need to declare the financial aid from her local college? When declared the college pays for it through this grant, should they have recalculated our entitlement taken that into account (although I do recall the asked for a day and I responded what day? He said when you want to stop claiming so I said 4th Jan when we knew or thought it was wrong.....?) any overpayment made since stating the college have paid for it since September? Were we entitled to any childcare with us both working? and finally will we end up in prison? I roughly work out that we received £100 per week for 5mths 20 weeks so around £2000 what will they do once I send them this documentation back........as my username suggests scratchingmyhead......it seems so black and white now especially writing this but at the time it seemed we were correct

Hi - we currently have two overpayments of around £3000 combined on tax credits, and have now been informed that we have to pay them off as we no longer get any tax credits. I was hoping to ask for some advice, as one of these in particular seems a little bit "iffy" to me… The first overpayment was for the 2008-2009 period. This was a period of upheaval, where I had been made redundant in June 2008. I finally got a new job in Feb 2009, and phoned the tax office to say that I was now earning £35K (this is very clear on the phone recording – I had requested a copy of all our information along with phone calls). The problem with this period was that when I was made redundant, I believe my wife phones them up (can't actually recollect this, and for some reason there's no trace of this call in the call log). Supposedly she gave a low estimate as to my expected income as it didn't take into account my redundancy pay. Whilst I rectified this when I got a job, this resulted in an £2500 overpayment (which has slowly being paid off, and is now down to £1200) – don't think I can really argue this one. The second overpayment was for the 2009-2010 period. It was actually in June 2010 when I was reviewing my documents, that I noticed our child care costs were incorrect. They were still stating we were claiming £50 for our son (when he had finished 09/2008), and we hadn't started claiming £16 for my daughter (who started 03/2009). A bit bad on my part for the oversight – but since we never got any childcare costs in our tax credits, I didn't think it mattered. I phoned up and stated as much, and gave the full details. The operator agreed that it shouldn't change anything much, so I wasn't concerned by it. Then, a little while later, the tax credits were recalculated and we were hit with an overpayment of £2038 (which currently sits at around £1750 left to pay). I was a little shocked to say the least! Our initial dealings with the tax office didn't give a very clear picture, and I ended up just accepting that we would end up paying it off with future tax credits. But now we don't qualify, I really want to check that this is correct! I've phoned them back, and an operator actually explained how it has happened. They said that that for the 2009-2010 period we got the following – best shown on the Feb 2010 revised award notice. This was before I had phoned up with the revised childcare costs, so is the last award notice to show them in the calculations. Incidentally, I got this notice after an amended awards notice came out in Jan 2010. This still had me down as a combined income of £23,501 – not the £35,000 +£3,500 (wife's employment) that I had clearly reported in Feb 2009. Working Tax Credit : Basic £1889.70 2nd adult £1861.50 30-hour element £777.45 -------------------------------------------- Total £4529.65 Income Reduction £4529.65 -------------------------------------------- Amount for this period £0.00 Childcare element of working tax credit Total £2100.80 Income Reduction £2100.80 -------------------------------------------- Amount for this period £0.00 Child Tax Credit : 2 qualifying children £4474.90 Family Elements Basic £547.50 -------------------------------------------- Total £5022.40 Income Reduction £31.13 -------------------------------------------- Amount for this period £4991.27 So at this stage, we're not getting any working tax credits, we're not getting childcare help, and we're not being overpaid. But in June, that all changed with the revised childcare costs. They would take them out of the calculations, and with the tapering, it meant our tax credits should have been around £3000 – so we now owed around £2000. Now my point that I've put to them is that if they had used my actual income that I gave to them in Feb 2009, the extra £15,000 worth of tapering (at 39p to the £), would have resulted in a deduction of £5850 instead of £31.13 (the operator I was speaking to seemed to agree with this logic). Which would mean we would only get the basic tax credit for the 2009-2010 period. We would have got a lot less tax credits, but it means we wouldn't have it all to pay back either. I gave them an accurate income figure, and they say their procedures would make them choose the lower figure of what you earned the year before (£23,500) - regardless of the fact that I was redundant and so not earning for the whole year. Sounds stupidly complicated to me and just asking for trouble - they'll be giving me tax credits for two years based on an income of £23,500 when I'm earning a lot more (so I would get more tax credits in the second year compared to someone else who has always earned £35,000). Okay – my fault for not noticing the childcare costs, but since we've never been paid them, it really didn't seem to matter – and it wouldn't have mattered if they had used my income. So – I'm hoping to ask any of you experts who know more about this than me – is this a worthwhile thing to raise a dispute over, or am I wasting my time? Would appreciate a quick reply – I've got to sort out how to pay back £3000 within the next week or so (thanks to the pleasures of having to wait 40 days just to get all your data back from the tax office!). Thanks, M.

Hi first time posting in this particular forum. For the first time i will be applying for working tax credits and sent off my application form on monday evening but would have reached postman till tuesday. Unfortunately on top of dealing with payday loans, credit card charges and ppi claims my partner has decided to move out. Money is now very tight and i was wondering though i know the website predicts 21 days for a response if anyone has any experience of it being turned around any quicker than this? im just hoping for the quickest time possible. Also i've attempted to backdate my claim one month does anyone know how strict they are with this i started my current employment back in october last year but was unaware i could be claiming this working tax credit. Thanks.

Hi, okay, so I stopped getting hours at work last October, and received my P45 in December. However, since that time I have been receiving around £50 a week in working tax credits. I know I should have told them waaay earlier than this, but I've had alot on my plate (depression), and it hasn't been top priority until now. I know I should contact them ASAP, explain everything and start repaying it - and that is what I will do unless, if, and it's a big if - If there is any way I can get the payments to stop coming from Working Tax Credits without having to reveal that I've been receiving them whilst not working for the past 7 months? I'm aware in this scenario that I would still need to pay off the debt someday, but I just don't fancy paying it off today as I'm not working, and trying to get my life back on track. If anyone has any clever ideas, I'd love to hear them. At least that way I could stop myself getting any further into debt. I assume most answers will be along the lines of contact them and admit all though. Thanks anyway folks