Hi I am now a pensioner and not very good with computers . My problem being - late return of year ending WTC form. I had a letter from HMRC that I had failed to return the form (which I had) . I then contacted hmrc by phone and explained and apologised that at the time I should have filled in the form I had been in hospital where I was diagnosed with cancer , he was very polite and sympathetic and told me not to worry and ignore the letter as I had until January to complete and return it . This is where I do get really confused although he did say something with reference to the letter and I cant remember what he said , one of the side effects of cancer is memory loss (not my words) anyone professional within that area will confirm . I then (again dates unknown) firstly receive from HMRC a letter stating an underpayment of around £153 , and a couple of days later another letter stating I owed the full payment that we had received for the 2016/17 year . I contacted the "debt recovery" number on the letter and explained all the above , which the agent informed myself that there was nothing she could do but I would be sent an "appeals" form which I have received . Could someone please advise regards roy. Hi Just to clarify so as not to confuse , I retired at the end of the 2016/17 financial year = April.

I have a long running dispute with HMRC about alleged overpayment of WTC which they have failed to answer. Today received letters from LCS Leeds making growling noises. I presume that I should tell them to F.O and that I will only communicate with HMRC and they have nom authority to be involved? Thank you

Hi everyone. I'm just after the best advice as to how to deal with Rossendales. Naturally I haven't and will not speak to them on the phone. They are claiming I owe a WTC overpayment of £139.07 from 2014. This would have been from the time when I was self-employed. I can just about remember getting some derisory amount of a couple of quid a week from way back. Could this be it? Anyway, I thought I would 'test the water' so to speak with them and wrote back asking if the debt had been assigned to them, knowing full well that HMRC doesn't assign debts. They came back with two letters, one factual, one rude saying essentially send us a statement of your finances and stop messing about! Now for the life of me I MIGHT owe this debt, but then again I might not and HMRC could be wrong. Rossendales say they don't under the 2005 Act have to provide info proving the debt. I am minded to fire back a letter along the lines of 'psychological harassment' and say if you won't provide the info get HMRC to but I would welcome all views and thoughts before I do.

Hello everyone! I've tried to research this on my own so many times, but I'm unable to find a clear answer to this. I'm a EEA national who is about to start a full-time business from home. As my business will be just starting, probably I won't met the earning thresold to be automatically seen as a self-employed in order to claim WTC. Any of you is getting WTC being an EEA national but earning less than 155 weekly pounds? Please note I meet the criteria of age and working hours before replying. Your help is appreciated!

im posting this on behalf of my sister inlaw . she and i have both tried talking to hmrc what a nasty we dont care attitude they have . she recently (few weeks ago )saw a £24.80 per week drop in tax credits , phoned them and they said wait for a letter to arrive and then phone the number onit and they will explain . letter comes and low and behold ,same number idiots. any she rand them yesterday and they are calculating that by 05/04/2016 her earning will be £10700 £6.79 ph on a constant 30 hour week . her last wage slip dated 28/02/2016 states her total earnings to be £8002.54 to that date for the year . so out came the calculator and a rough estimate to the date they gave 05/04/2016 adds upto £9198.54 total earnings for the year . so how can they start taking an over payment for 05/04/2015 to 05/04/2016 of over £700 ? they said they base it on earning from previous years of 2013 to 2014 . the system sucks . so now she is £24.80 worse off a week. reducing her tax credits to £44.64 per week until 10/06/2016. she is a single parent who works ,pays full council rent ,gets no discount,full council tax -25% single person discount and has a 13year old child . some how i couldnt get it throiugh to the lady that how can you take an overpayment that hasn't actually occured yet ? based on the fact that in 2013-2014 she use to work 40 hrs per week . is there some way to appeal against this ? as she struggles as it is now . i see her point , whats the use in working if single parents etc are better off on benefits . go to work get punished . is there any help she can get either in tax credits ,appealing againt housing costs to offset an overpayment that has not happened yet .

Hi all I have a couple of question about mine and my partners WTC claim as we are new to claim WTC. My partner works 33 hours a week at NMW and I worked 15 hrs a week but my contract came to an end at the end of November, we have been claiming WTC since April. I have checked entitled to website and says we are still entitled to the same amount of WTC. Questions are do I need to inform the HMRC of the change of income even though they won't be a change in amount received or can I just wait till the renewal forms in April? Is they any negative effects of not informing them and waiting on the renewal? Also on to the question of renewal our income for year 15/16 will be lower than 16/17 so on the renewal forms can you put down how much your going to earn for the year 16/17 instead of going off the years 15/16 income? As it is going to be about £5,000 less for the year 16/17. Thanks for any advice.

Hi All, My head is all of the place at the moment due to letters from HMRC's Tax Credit Office. I will give you some background info. I have been claiming WTC, CTC and Housing Benefit since 2012 due to low income. I had been working just a few hours here and there. TBH, I deliberately kept the hours down as the total benefits outweighed any potential income. The " Benefit Trap" so to speak. Last year, I decided to go down the Self - Assessment route and contacted HMRC and was issued with an UTR. I have kept my official earnings at around 10K,so not to earn too much. In June this year, I received a letter stating that according to the WTC people my working hours were ' zero' and had been since May 2014.This is when I became "Self - employed". I requested a Mandatory Reconsideration. I received a reply about 7 weeks later saying I was not entitled to WTC because they have no record of my hours worked since becoming self- employed. They have requested further info 1. Copies of advertisements placed ( I have never placed any!) 2. A breakdown of the hours you worked in a week. ( I have a breakdown of the amount worked,but not the hours. Should I break this down to say an average of 27 hours a week over a month? ) 3.Invoices for any work you have done. ( haven't got any,but could work on that.) To add further woe, I was given until 14 August to provide this, but I only opened the letter last Friday as I had been out of the country for 5 weeks.... As I am sure some of you know for the Mandatory Reconsideration the HMRC give two options? 1. Choose this option if you DON'T want to proceed and withdraw the request and repay any over payments ... or 2. Choose this option ... and supply the requested information. I am tempted to go with option 1 as it seems like a lot of hassle,but have not decided yet. I want to call them tomorrow,but am seeking some advice here first. However, I think my biggest worry is potentially losing my HB. I live in London with my wife and child and this would be life changing. If I did choose Option 1 and ended my request for a Mandatory Reconsideration, would this affect my HB?? I know I am supposed to inform my local housing authority of any changed,but haven't. I seemed to have spun a right web for myself,however, writing this feels like the first step. Hopefully, some of you can advise? Thank you, Bothered One

Can someone please help with this. I and my husband have received letters from pcs saying we owe £1007 in overpayment. We haven't had wtc for a few years and don't believe we owe anything. What do u suggest? Friends have said to ignore it because if we respond we are admitting we owe it. I'm at a loss as to what to do I hope you can help me please. I am on disability pip payments at moment and this is causing me to have panic attacks

Hello all During the tax years of 2010 and 2011, I claimed Working Tax Credit as I was self-employed, on a low income and worked the required amount of hours. Last year HMRC decided to review my case, and as I was not being paid an hourly rate, and being paid a lump sum per invoice, I was no longer entitled to WTC, even though I could easily show I was working the required number of hours weekly. I did not have the stomach, nor the time, to keep arguing the toss with them so allowed my WTC to stop. Just yesterday a bill from HMRC for just shy of £5,000 landed on my mat, asking for immediate payback or debt collection! Being self-employed they all my address details and this is the first bit of correspondence I've had asking for payback to something I was genuinely entitled to!! They have not given me the option to contest this on the letter, but I darn well will. I didn't steal this money - I needed it when business was waning and I have worked bloody hard to improve my business in challenging times. Hopefully, one of you lovely people can offer some advice of where to begin...

I hope this is the right place to find answers to our questions. My partner is on DLA and I am on working tax credits (self employed working 36 hours a week). My partners mother died November 2014 and left everything to my partner and his brother. It is mainly the house (with alot of equity taken off). My partner is the executor and when the house is sold the eventual proceeds will be split between him and his brother. Sounds great, but, we are in the middle of the long process of the changes with the benefits regarding my partners ESA and DLA. And I have just received the form to renew my working tax credits. What are we supposed to declare, when are we supposed to declare it............. we are so stuck for money at the moment as my partners ESA stopped last June and he has, only last week, received an appointment for an assessment. We have been surviving on about £200 a week (most of that is DLA for my partner), with £250 a month mortgage to pay. I am so frightened of doing the wrong thing and messing up all the paperwork, it is such a minefield with every question ending 'you may be done for fraud' or 'owe money'. I would appreciate any advice please or any suggestions of who we can go to for help with the forms etc. T

Hello I need some help regarding the above for my daughter-in-law. Facts first; Seperated from my son Claims ESA Support Group CB DLA Low Rate Care & Mobility Working and child tax credits Two children, 1 of which receives higher rate care and low mobility Registered as self employed - working 18 hours permitted work for £20 per week, cannot earn more than that due to ESA rules. Please do not judge, I am stating the facts as they exist and please note, DIL has been allowed to claim these benefits for a number of years but has recently found out that WTC rules due to be made this month, that WTC will need to see she is working for the NMW, which of course she cannot do, just earning £20 per week for self employment and also would need to provide details of her earnings - no records have been kept due to mental illness, just calculated at £20 per week over the year. Fills in self-asssessment every year, declaring her income and taxable ESA, totalling over £7K per year. So my questions are what can she do regarding these new rules, does she no longer claim ESA, should she stop the ESA claim now and lose approx £460 per 4 weeks? Or wait for HMRC to ask her to prove her income and hours worked, which she does not have? And then lose a large amount from WTC & CTC? A couple of years ago she had a compliance check and was totally honest about her living alone with just her 2 children, her work and her benefits allowance. At no point was she asked for records about her employment, she sent proof of bills, bank statements etc. She is now more mentally unstable and I am trying very hard to help her, but she has stated that if her WTC was to be cut, she would harm herself. She has an appointment with the GP on Wednesday. She has previously had care from a CPN. I don't know where my son is and neither does she. She is vunerable and I need some help please as I am not sure what best to advise her. Please don't judge, the system has allowed her to claim these benefits and I can personally vouch for her self employment, she is up all hours of the night doing her self employment, incuding the early hours of the morning as she just cannot sleep. She also cares for my grandson during the night as he has frequent 'accidents' whilst sleeping. I have tried to research these new rules, it stated somewhere that caring for another person can count as work, so she does that, but how would she say that as she is not getting paid for it. If she loses her WTC, she will lose her house and to be honest, I am scared what she will do.

Hi folks After an eventful year (Last) of going between 3 jobs (First part time, second and third full time) and benefits, I am once again in a 34.75 hour per week job. (One thatis liekly to last this time) Trying to get my head around the whole WTC thing. Do you claim for the previous year etc?

Hi Just a quick question. My husband has been awarded PIP at high rate on both care and motorbility. Am I right in thinking this makes no difference to working tax credits as he doesn't work? I work 24 hours per week and get £3 per week WTC but wondered if PIP effected this. Thanks

Back in 2006 tax credits lost our claim and we had to wait 4 months for them to sort it out... So after lots of phone calls and letters we got it back dated for the whole 4 months... Now they just sent a load giros which amounted to around £3000... Before we cashed them we rang to make sure they were the right amounts and they were ok to cash... They confirmed that yes it was the missed payments and under payments.. Fast forward to now... Letter from Tax credits claiming a overpayment on WTC for £450... After much head serching i pinned the amount to the giros.... Also got a letter from Advantis DCA... So I sent the standard over 6 years old statue barred letter. They rang the Mrs this morning telling her it can't be barred and she needs to get a loan or credit card to pay the amount in full... She explained that I deal with the money side and was in bed due to working late... He tried to find out how much we earn/ do we have savings etc.... The guy is ringing back at 11am to speak to me... I never deal with DCA's on the phone but after what he has said this morning I'm fuming.. Any advice/facts that I can throw at him when he rings back would be useful... In the meantime I'm going to appeal against the amount as I now understand you can't statue bar tax credits... Thanks in advance for any help.

I recently advised HMRC that the initial award of WTC had changed in that the (then) Guaranteed Pension Credit had ceased Rather surprised that as I presume this is counted as an element of income that the overall amount of WTC should be reduced Couldn't get a satisfactory answer from HMRC over the phone I would have thought that as an income sum had been removed there would (could ) have been a proportionate increase to WTC? Any thoughts or ideas please? My status is over 65 (So State pension, plus small occupational pension)working approx. 20 hours per week married, but no entitlement to Child Tax credit

Hi all, I'm sure I'll get better advice here than from HMCS online who of course take up to five days to answer an email. A friend wants to sue a builder who damaged her property while working on a neighbour's house. I won't bore you with the whole story but it's been dragging on for nine months. She is very hard up, works and gets Working Tax Credits. I thought she would qualify for a fee remission, but apparently not. The online advice brochure says that you qualify if you receive a number of different benefits including Universal Credit, but there is no mention of WTC. As WTC has been replaced by Universal Credit in areas such as Manchester it appears that if you live in an updated area which has UC you can have a fee remission but if your area is still on WTC/CTC you don't. I don't get it. I have emailed HMCS online for her and the first response was that she should contact CAB. When I pointed out that it wasn't a legal issue it was information given in their own brochure the next response was to say that UC qualifies but WTC and CTC don't. I think the information has been prepared for when UC takes over and they haven't waited for it to come in all over the country. What do you think? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. DDx

I received a letter from HMRC today containing a Notice To pay for an overpayment of working tax credit for the period ending 28/11/2012. It's not a huge amount, less than £100, but, I have been out of work and claiming JSA since the start of November 2012. I am 100% certain that I advised them of the change in circumstances at the time, and was advised that my WtC payments would continue for one month/28 days after I stopped working. I tried to contact someone today, but was advised their computers are down for updates and will not be available until monday. My concerns are that my only source of income is my JSA, what will they do to get their money back. I live with my brother who is the tenant in a council flat, he pays all the bills at the moment as he is working full time, I only pay the BT/Broadband bill and my own food, plus any travelling by public tpt for job interviews etc. Can anyone give me an idea of what will happen? Thanks

I hope this is in the right section. It is a question about debt rather than WTC so I think it is. I would appreciate any advice. I was on working tax credits for three years but received a letter half-way through the third year telling me I had been overpaid. The reason they gave was that they didn't believe I was self-employed and wanted the money back for that tax year and the one before. I think their decision was based on incorrect records and probably orders from above to claw back as much money from people as they can. Evidence of their poor records was that I was sent a tax return for the year before I was self-employed when I had been registered as unemployed. I was fined for not filling it in on time - I had tried but the questions didn't apply to me so I couldn't fill it in properly. The fine was lifted on appeal. A couple of years later, after they demanded money back, there were various letters from me and from them and a couple of 'phone conversations. They gave different reasons why they thought I wasn't eligible for WTC. In 2011 they demanded just over £3,000 back. A letter this year demanded a slightly different amount - different by a few pounds and pence. I have also received a reminder to fill in my tax return for 2012-2013 during which I was registered as unemployed and made a fortnightly declaration that I hadn't done any work. Why can't these departments of the government communicate with each other? I am going to the CAB to ask their help in getting a Debt Relief Order (DRO). I will ask them for advice but they couldn't give me any advice a couple of years ago when I asked them about the WTC nonsense. o I thought it a good idea to ask for advice here. I want to know if the tax people can place any obstacle in my way if I tell them I'm applying for a DRO. I think I will need to tell them because the latest demand for payment says they will pass the debt on to a debt collection agency. As I understand it, if I apply for a DRO and name the tax people as the creditor for the alleged debt but they pass it on to some other organisation, the DRO will be invalid as it will contain wrong details about the alleged creditor. If someone could advise me about the possibilty of an obstacle being put in my way or about a change of 'creditor' I would be most obliged. I also have been told that I owe over £400 in unpaid NICs. This was my fault as I didn't apply for an abstention due to low income. I was working too hard and was dealing with a serious injury and simply forgot about NI contributions. This has some bearing on the WTC case because the NIC people have demanded payment for a time after the WTC was stopped and I was registered as unemployed. It is only for a few weeks but shows how lax they all are in sharing information and keeping records. I was going to seek help from the tax ombudsman but have decided that would be a waste of time. I am due to be on pension credit in about 6 months from now and want to get my tax and NIC affairs settled in case it has an adverse effect. Just thought of another question - pension credit might leave me with more than £50 a month disposable income. Will this affect the DRO? So that's three questions: 1. Can the scroundrels do anything to stop me getting a DRO? 2. If it's passed to a debt collector will it invalidate the DRO application? 3. Will pension credit have an effect? Thanks in advance.

Last year Feb 2011 I ceased work altogether. WTC's were paid up to March 2011 (4 week run on). Sent all of the details of income to them in July 2011 (2010/11). I then noticed that they had not included the disability element so appealed against the final award letter in Sept 2011. I then received £800 paid straight into the bank which I presumed was the disability element money that I was owed for 2010/11. A few weeks later followed a letter that said that my 2011/12 award was provisional and this payment represents April 2011 - Sept 2011. uhhh - I'm not entitled to this money! My claim ceased in Feb 2011??? Fast forward - HMRC have admitted full responsibility for the mess and that it had nothing to do with me. Anyhow a few weeks later I started getting demands to repay this £800. Thinking that it will sort itself out and call it quits - they owed me money for 2010/11 for the disability element V I owe them money for the error that HMRC caused. Never heard anything about the disability element payment. Anyhow, debt collectors are now involved. oops sorry missed out the bit about the letter saying that if it isn't paid bt 2/10/13 they have instructions to issue a Statutory Demand, whatever that is. Telephoned Tax credits today and eventually got to speak with a lady in the overpayments section. First of all she treated me as a [problem]mer then after reading the file she was visibly shocked. Her words were that if ever there was a case of Official Error then this is it - what has happened to the dispute that you must have lodged? After explaining that I hadn't lodged anything and viewed the whole thing that they owe me £800 and I owe them £800, might as well call it quits. No she said, HMRC are definitely at fault here and you should not have to repay the £800 + you are also owed another £800. If you had disputed it it would have been written off! As it is as you haven't objected to their demands you will unfortunately have to repay it now - you are too late to dispute it. Is there a time limit by which you have to submit a dispute? Surely the tax man can't ask me to repay something that they themselves are admitting isn't even collectable?

Hi all. Starting my own enterprise. Looking to go full steam ahead and do things properly. Fed up with the lack of help from JCP and so I have a WTC claim form to complete. Do I sign off before sending in the claim form or afterwards? Also, just how long between HMRC getting my form and my first payment? Shoulda done this weeks ago! Thanks.

Hi, thought I would come back to this forum for advice because everyone was so helpful in the past. Basically I am in reciept of working tax credit and getting the disability element of this as well. I have been recieving this since roughly last august. However with renewals due very soon, will I continue to recieve this or will it be stopped? I'm not sure what the qualifying conditions would be even though I have read through these they don't make a great deal of sense. What or who makes the decision to review or stop this part of WTC? I know that one of the reasons I got in back in august 2012 was because I had been recieving ESA contribution and council/housing benefit but this entitlement has obviously now stopped. thanks for any help.

I received a letter back in February saying that I have been chosen for a review of my WTC and CTC.(Suspecting a neighbour played a large part in that but that's beside the point). I work self employed as a cleaner and the period that they asked for the information for was from 6th November to 6th February. I duly sent off all my invoices, receipts, bank statements, car registration documents (why!!), car insurance (why!!!) etc etc. Yesterday I received a letter from them saying that I only work 14 hours per week and they are backdating this to April 2012 and therefore I owe them £3000+. As the period they requested included Christmas and the New Year, I did not work for ten days as who wants a vacuum under your feet whilst you are eating your turkey. Most of my clients are also elderly and went to family for Christmas and therefore did not want their houses cleaned so whilst I worked in excess of 16 hours per week on all the other weeks, not working for those ten days dropped my average over the three months to 14.8, which they have nicely rounded down to 14 not up to 15 as you would. Had they have chosen any other three months, it would have shown that I work at least 16 hours per week and therefore I would have been fine. Surely it is not fair that my claim for the entire year has been based on those three months alone as they have not knowledge of what I worked before those dates or indeed after. Having finished my financial year today, I have averaged 16.5 hours per week over the year, working excess in the summer cleaning holiday lets on a Saturday to take into account the days I have had off ie. two weeks in the summer and ten days at Christmas. The nature of the job means that sometimes you are unable to work, ie they are on holiday or ill and don't want you but I have ensured that I have worked the extra so the average is 16+ hours per week. I could possibly understand it if they said that they would not pay me WTC for the two weeks in the summer (which they don't know about as they did not ask for the time scale) and the ten days at Christmas but surely they can't claim back a year's worth when they have no idea what I have worked in that time?

Hi there, I am looking for some advice, I have just started work again after a long period (years) of claiming IB/ESA and DLA. I also was receiving CTC. I have phoned the HMRC and I qualify for the disabled element of WTC due to DLA award. I have also notified DLA of a change in circumstances. My question is - if when DLA get back to me - and they say I am no longer entitled to DLA - obviously this will stop the disabled element. Can I then claim because of time spent on ESA? Can't I just do that now? I received DLA for mental health issues - which have not entirely gone - but I am coping with them now, which is why DLA may end - but I will still be disabled for the purpose of WTC

Please can someone advise if I am entitled to the disabilty element of tax credits if esa has been in place for one month or do I have to wait until next year.

Currently I am on ESA and am constantly reassesed. My condition is fluctuating and leaves me in a great deal of pain about half the days out of the month and I cannot predict when I will fall ill. There are some days when I am well enough to work and I am happy to do so but so far no employer as been willing to take me on given the unpredictable nature of my condition and indeed a Work Porgramme advisor was the person who told me to apply for ESA as he said I had no hope of finding a job. The only option I see is self employment working from home as that would allow me to manage my condition but while I do have some skills I am not confident that I can make a living at least not for sometime on self employed homework. I have looked into WTC and I believe I would be entitled to the disability WTC if I lived alone but if I were living with a working partner his income and anything I made would be put together and considered jointly. I don't live with my partner yet but I would like to move in with him and he with me. He does work and makes a good income of around £30,000 a year before tax etc. However I wouldn' be able to live with him unless I made a say around £500 a month. He is understanding about my situation but with the cost of living so high and being that his elderly mother still relies on him financially to a degree I don't think he would take me on unless I was bringing something to the pot to help with my own living costs. From what I understand if I was living with him any claim for WTC would account for his income and I would recieve nothing even if my personal income was very small. I find this difficult as there is no guarantee that a disabled persons partner would be willing to support them financially. It is hard enough to find and maintain a relationship if you have health problems never mind the added financial concerns. I am getting older and worry that this might be my last chance at having a relationship and I want to keep it but I don't feel that I can ask him for so much. I don't know what my options are if I suspect that I will be removed from ESA sooner rather than later with no consideration give to how likely it is that I will find a job. I could stay as I am with family and try to build up self employment while getting Disability WTC and trying to earn more but I run the real risk of my partner losing interest and moving on. It also means that yet again my illness is preventing me from living my life. I already put up with so much that it would be nice to think that love isn't totally out of my reach. Is there anything which might allow me to do some work and get some support while living with my parnter?