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Child Tax Credit Renewal - Can they do this?


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Hi Everyone

 

I received my Tax Credit Renewal Pack today and decided to renew it straight away by phone.

 

My circumstances are straightforward, I receive Child Tax Credit only, I receive Income Support and a disability premium.

 

Last year I was receiving child tax credit of £166.80 every 4 weeks.

 

They have now informed me that I will only receive £165.26 every 4 weeks, as they are recovering an overpayment at the rate of £18.36 every payment.

 

Now I did have an overpayment (which was there fault) in 2003. They were recovering this from WTC until I became ill.

 

So the bottom line is everything has gone up but I am now receiving less than before. I understand that the overpayment has to be repaid but how can they justify leaving you with less money?

 

It is hard enough trying to bring up a family, when because of ill health you can't work and the increases in benefits are substantialy less than the cost of living increase year on year.

 

Is there anything I can do about this? Or do I really have to just accept it?

 

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Simon:-)

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

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Hi Everyone

 

I received my Tax Credit Renewal Pack today and decided to renew it straight away by phone.

 

My circumstances are straightforward, I receive Child Tax Credit only, I receive Income Support and a disability premium.

 

Last year I was receiving child tax credit of £166.80 every 4 weeks.

 

They have now informed me that I will only receive £165.26 every 4 weeks, as they are recovering an overpayment at the rate of £18.36 every payment.

 

Now I did have an overpayment (which was there fault) in 2003. They were recovering this from WTC until I became ill.

 

So the bottom line is everything has gone up but I am now receiving less than before. I understand that the overpayment has to be repaid but how can they justify leaving you with less money?

 

It is hard enough trying to bring up a family, when because of ill health you can't work and the increases in benefits are substantialy less than the cost of living increase year on year.

 

Is there anything I can do about this? Or do I really have to just accept it?

 

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Simon:-)

 

 

Hello Simon,

 

Interesting problem. I looked at the site and it states very firmly you cannot appeal, so I dug a little further.

 

You do not have to pay back all the over payment - they say - if the overpayment was their fault and not yours.

 

What if we fail in our responsibilities?

 

If you fulfil all of your responsibilities but we have failed in ours, we won’t ask you to pay back all of the overpayment arising from our failure.

 

 

This is their site:

 

HM Revenue & Customs: COP 26 - What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?

 

Read through your and their responsibilities and if you can clearly show it was through their own fault, you have a case to complain about being left poorer to pay back money they gave through their own fault.

 

Check through tho in case other factors are invovled such as the following:

 

Whenever you tell us about an error we won’t collect any overpayment that may build up because of our failure to correct our error from this time.

 

What if we both fail to meet our responsibilities?

 

We will look at the circumstances of your case and we may write off parts of an overpayment if we have failed to meet one or more responsibilities but you have also failed to meet yours.

What if it takes you some time to tell us we have failed our responsibilities?

 

We ask you to tell us about any mistakes we have made within one month of receiving your award notice. If you don’t tell us within one month we will ask you to pay back the overpayment up to the date you contacted us. We won’t ask you to repay any overpayment, which is due to that mistake, after the date you contacted us.

 

 

Nice cup of tea or whatever you fancy would be good when you sit to read this report and hope it helps some.

 

Good luck

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Hi

 

Thanks fr the info, I have read right through it and I can't see anyway they would 'write off' the overpayment or any part of it.

 

The problem arose in 2003 when we came out of the 'pub game', that was in the May. I had to go and sign on, to ensure my NI stamp was paid. We had decided to take six monthe out to recharge the batteries, as we were worn out, (I had been doing around 100+ hours a week) and we had a small child.

 

We had been receiving £45 a month in tax credits because of our income, which was fine. Anyway the jobcentre told me to ring them as our circumstances had changed, so I did. The next thing I new was £1500 credited to my account. To be honest I wondered but assumed that they were right and I must have been owed that money. The following April at renewal, they came up with this overpayment, which they have been recovering ever since.

 

So I accepted that while they made the initial mistake, I had a responsibility to question the £1500. My problem now is as I said, the amounts of CTC have gone up for this year (not as much as the cost of living though!) but I am now receiving less than I was last year because of this overpayment.

 

I asked yesterday and they told me hard luck I just had to accept it, I don't feel that is fair. It is hard enough to survive in the present climate, without effectively receiving a reduction my money.

 

I have been trawling the internet, trying to find information. There is enough about overpayments and how to appeal against an overpayment, I am happy to accept that it needs to be repaid. What I can't find is anything about how to appeal against the amount of recovery, or what the rules are on this.

 

I am drafting a letter to them but could do with some solid information to use in arguing my case, to get the amount decreased.

 

If anyone who knows anything, or if anyone has been in this position and managed to get some reduction, I would appreciate some ideas and any help offered.

 

Simon:)

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

Me V Its4me and Close Premium Finance:!:WON / 28 November 2007:!:

 

IF I CAN HELP, I WILL, IF I DO, THEN PLEASE CLICK ON THE SCALES ON THE LEFT

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Hello again,

Depending on how the overpayment occurred then yes parts of the overpayment may be able to be written off.

They state that giving them the wrong information; being late in telling them of a change of circumstance would be down to you, the claimant and then the overpayment has to be paid.

It sounds as if they made the mistake when they recorded the information you gave them and/or they did not act on the information you gave them.

The award notice you received at the time would have included all the information you had given them. It is the claimant’s responsibility to check through the notice to see if it is correct. It is also their responsibility to contact HM Revenue & Customs to inform them if anything is not correct on this information.

It is up to the claimant to see if the award granted matches the amount it states on the award notice as failure to do so can make an overpayment arise.

Ok so you did not query this at the time however it seems to me you have questioned the award since and by their own statement, they will not claim after the query has been made:

What if we both fail to meet our responsibilities?

We will look at the circumstances of your case and we may write off parts of an overpayment if we have failed to meet one or more responsibilities but you have also failed to meet yours.

What if it takes you some time to tell us we have failed our responsibilities?

We ask you to tell us about any mistakes we have made within one month of receiving your award notice. If you don’t tell us within one month we will ask you to pay back the overpayment up to the date you contacted us. We won’t ask you to repay any overpayment, which is due to that mistake, after the date you contacted us. “

Think back to 2003, where there any illnesses that affected your immediate situation, anything at all that could be used as a valid reason why you were unable to correct the mistake immediately?

If there is nothing that interfered with your ability to sort the mistake at the time, then you have no case, it seems to me, to ask for repayments to be taken into consideration until the time of your query – that date will be when you first asked them about the overpayments and what this was for.

This is their mistake, and they say they will not ask for any overpayment from the date you bring the matter of this to their attention.

So I suggest you write a letter stating when the overpayment was made and when you questioned it – this would be when you started paying back - and ask why they have not stopped the repayments in accordance with their own policy as this is causing unnecessary hardship.

 

The appeal only works if you thought the level of the award was wrong however you can dispute the recovery of the award and they will then go on to decide how the overpayment was made and whose fault was it i.e. who failed their responsibility the claimant or the staff or if it was both (as it could be here). This seems to me to be good grounds to have the repayment decision overturned or at least made into smaller amounts.

I would also suggest a trip down to C.A.B. with the paperwork to see if they can help you further.

 

Hope this has helped make it clearer.

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Hi

 

Yes thanks it is a bit clearer and I am composing a letter to them.

 

Thanks for your help and advice.

 

If anyone else knows anything about CTC Overpayment recovery then please contribute to the thread.

 

All help and advice is appreciated.

 

Simon:)

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

Me V Its4me and Close Premium Finance:!:WON / 28 November 2007:!:

 

IF I CAN HELP, I WILL, IF I DO, THEN PLEASE CLICK ON THE SCALES ON THE LEFT

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I had the opposite situation to you, I knew i had been overpayed and wanted to start paying them back but they wouldnt help me when i called them, i sent 3 letters RD and got no replies from them apart from the letters saying they were going to take further action if i didnt pay the money back! I found that contacting my Local MP and supplying all the details to them resolved the issue. It took my MP's office 1 day to sort everything for me unlike the 4 weeks i had spent trying to do it myself.

 

maybe contacting your Local MP and explaining what has happened may help you reslove this?

The views expressed on this website are mine alone and don't reflect the views of my employer!

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Thank you for the idea Yellow160, after the phone call I have just had, I think I will do just that:mad: !!

 

I got to thinking that what they told me could not possibly be correct. I was told that the reason I was getting less was because last year they were not taking anything for the overpayment. I got to thinking then that this just didn't sound right.

 

I checked HMRC website and discovered that for the year 2007 - 2008 I was entitled to;

 

Family Element of

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

Me V Its4me and Close Premium Finance:!:WON / 28 November 2007:!:

 

IF I CAN HELP, I WILL, IF I DO, THEN PLEASE CLICK ON THE SCALES ON THE LEFT

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OOps! hit the wrong button!

 

Family element £545

Child Element £1845

 

Total of £2,390 /52 X 4 = 183.85 per 4 weeks.

 

Total actually received was £166.80 Difference -£17.05

Therefore they must have been taking this. I can not check with my award notice, as I never received one, I queried this a few times and was told it was still being processed!

This year the award for 2008 - 2009 is;

 

Family element £545

Child element £2085 Total = £2630 /12 X 4 = 202.32 per 4 weeks.

 

Amount being received = £165.26 so they have to be taking £37.06 a week!

 

With this information I decided to ring them and put them right!

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

Me V Its4me and Close Premium Finance:!:WON / 28 November 2007:!:

 

IF I CAN HELP, I WILL, IF I DO, THEN PLEASE CLICK ON THE SCALES ON THE LEFT

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I asked them to go through everything again with me as I believed they had got things wrong. I was asked why I thought this, so I told them as per their website info' there figures just could not be right and I quoted the above workings out and asked how I could be receiving less than last year, as this made me considerably worse off.

 

To my amazement, I was told "you are only receiving £1.60 a week less, so you cannot be considerably worse off! I didn't actualy believe that so I advised him, as the cost of living had increased over the last year and the rates of CTC had risen by £240 for the year, to be receiving less than last year, I was considerably worse off!!!

Their website quoted CTC of £202.32 every 4 weeks (when calculated) and I was actualy receiving £37.06 less than this at £165.26. Yet they had told me I was losing £18.36 for the overpayment, so where was the difference??

 

He went away again and came back to say my payments were now provisional and the increase hadn't been applied, so I was receiving last years award amount less the £18.36, despite having renewed my claim! This also shows they had to be taking money last year after they said they weren't!

I asked when it would be updated, he said when it's processed, I said well will that be given the fact I renewed by phone last week. He said to phone back tomorrow and Thursday and Friday and Saturday and they would look to see if it had been processed. So I asked how long on average it would take so I wasn't ringing every day at 10p a minute, he just reiterated exactly the same and told me to ring every day.

 

So basically:

 

They said they took no money last year - they did.

They have the cheek to tell me I am not considerably worse off.

They can't tell me how long it takes to process my renewal and can't give any indication, other than to incur 10p a minute costs to ring them every day!

 

Oh and not to forget telling me it is just hard luck about the recovery amount and I have to just pay it!

 

What a wonderfull government they really are!.....:mad:

 

Why is it they can not get things right?

Don't they realise that CTC and WTC are for the benefit of people with little or no money. As such every penny counts!

 

I now intend to contend the overpayment as they were equally to blame for it and copy everything to my MP.

 

Simon - still:) but also fuming:mad: !!

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

Me V Its4me and Close Premium Finance:!:WON / 28 November 2007:!:

 

IF I CAN HELP, I WILL, IF I DO, THEN PLEASE CLICK ON THE SCALES ON THE LEFT

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Hello again,

 

If they haven't processed the award notice then how cna they claim - surely this is relative to the award otherwise anyone in the office can make a provisional sum on figures that have no bearing on the true amount? They messed up and this is their responsibility - or failure of it.

 

Sound's as if writing to the M.P. will at least clarify what needs doing and good luck with it.

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Thanks guys i will inform my mum of this as she was getting one of the tax credits and they filled out the paperwork dur to her being dyslexic and they filled it out WRONG according to the repayments department and they want over 3 years of money back of her. They are taking her WHOLE benefit ao she gets no money at all.

OFT debt collection guidance

 

Please remember the only stupid question is the one you dont ask so dont worry about asking the stupid questions.

 

Essex girl in pc world looking 4 curtains 4 her pc,the assistant says u dont need curtains 4 a computer!!Essex girl says,''HELLOOO!! i,ve got WINDOWS!!'.

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Hi GM

 

There argument as always will probably be, it was her who suppplied the information. I thought there was a percentage scale of how much they can recover?? It may be worth checking, it doesn't seem right that she should get nothing! Although it seems to me they don't give a t**s what they do to people.

 

Simon:)

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

Me V Its4me and Close Premium Finance:!:WON / 28 November 2007:!:

 

IF I CAN HELP, I WILL, IF I DO, THEN PLEASE CLICK ON THE SCALES ON THE LEFT

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well they can try but they will have a fight on there hands and that is from her not me. They have not meet me yet.

 

Anyway if they try that then they will have a fight from me as they were making sure she understood the question.

OFT debt collection guidance

 

Please remember the only stupid question is the one you dont ask so dont worry about asking the stupid questions.

 

Essex girl in pc world looking 4 curtains 4 her pc,the assistant says u dont need curtains 4 a computer!!Essex girl says,''HELLOOO!! i,ve got WINDOWS!!'.

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Hi Simon

I have been fighting the modern day Sherrifs of Nottingham for a couple of years now, and although I am not quite in the same position as you, I know where you are coming from.

We recieved an overpayment of £2k, in one lump sum, phoned on the day it went in to account and was told to keep it, the amount would be taken from us over the preceeding months to even out overpayment. Two years later, I am now divorced, have high blood pressure and am being solely chased for £2800 and threatened with a CCJ!!!:mad:

I have had my MP on the case and he has done me proud, but they are bullies and you need to keep fighting, do not give up.

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Go get em, GM!!!!!

 

I can't wait to see how this one develops and no doubt the inconsistent crap spews from HMRC about how the received information was wrong, so it's not there fault!!!

 

Simon:)

 

tee s uk Hi, thanks for the support and I won't be giving up on this one new!!

 

Regarding your plight, if you received a 2K overpayment as a couple, surely you are both responsible for the repayment (even though it doesn't sound like your fault!). I hope you are still fighting that?

 

Also if it was £2k and now £2.8K, are they adding interest or something?

and more importantly are you going to fight them in court?

 

Simon:)

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

Me V Its4me and Close Premium Finance:!:WON / 28 November 2007:!:

 

IF I CAN HELP, I WILL, IF I DO, THEN PLEASE CLICK ON THE SCALES ON THE LEFT

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well they have managed to lose lots of ppls data

OFT debt collection guidance

 

Please remember the only stupid question is the one you dont ask so dont worry about asking the stupid questions.

 

Essex girl in pc world looking 4 curtains 4 her pc,the assistant says u dont need curtains 4 a computer!!Essex girl says,''HELLOOO!! i,ve got WINDOWS!!'.

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£2800 includes an over payment in wtc as well, useless bullying t*ssers, no interest.

Scared to fight in court as i am 6 months off having a clear credit file, would like to get a mortgage in the near future and a ccj would not help. I am basically waiting for a telephone transcript which should negate me of any wrong doing and place the ball firmly in their court, but i bet they will just say "tough", i live in hope though.

I have asked my MP to raise the point of "joint responsibility".

I'll keep you informed

Good luck

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tee s uk

 

I can fully understand where you are coming from with the CCJ.............and you just know there's a but here!....................I think you are allowed a short time, if you lose to pay before a CCJ would be recorded. This would give you leave to argue your case and pay up if you lose. There is also the chance you may win, don't forget that...........of course it your call though.

 

If you don't mind me asking, why is your ex not liable for half of the overpayment?

 

Have a think about standing your corner, it could save you some or all the money if you win.

 

There are literally dozens of people on this site who will help you as well

 

Simon:)

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

Me V Its4me and Close Premium Finance:!:WON / 28 November 2007:!:

 

IF I CAN HELP, I WILL, IF I DO, THEN PLEASE CLICK ON THE SCALES ON THE LEFT

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Thanks Simon

Not sure why she's not liable, her name has been taken off any correspondance!! Maybe she told them to "**** off", I'll give it a go;).

I am getting sick of the "we're right and you're wrong, because we say so" scenario.

It is now a waiting game, they need to make the next move, then I'll decide what to do.

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That's good news about giving it a go. Why not give HMRC a ring and ask why yu are expected to be solely responsible for the overpayment? That will at least shed some light on that aspect.

 

Keep in touch with what is going on.

 

Simon:)

:)IF YOU ARE BORED WITH LITTLE TO DO:)

My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey - :!:WON / 19 November 2007:!:

 

SKY TV and the penalty charge - how far will it go?

 

Me V Its4me and Close Premium Finance:!:WON / 28 November 2007:!:

 

IF I CAN HELP, I WILL, IF I DO, THEN PLEASE CLICK ON THE SCALES ON THE LEFT

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I came across this thread whilst trying to help a friend on a similar prob (ie overpayment) & being (what I would call an expert!) at fighting these useless b£"$%^ds I thought a reply stating 'I FOUGHT & I WON' would help drive you forward?

 

Just to try & give you a brief (the briefest) circumstances of my case;

When WTC & CTC first came out in April 2003 (I think?) I was awarded £5200 pw towards childcare costs, I immediately questions this & I was told sometimes childcare costs are stated as a yearly figure (which I was told mine were) & to divide by 52 to get weekly amount etc, this made sense & thankfully I kept a booklet that also said this (which was deleted from their notes a yr later). But when I reported the birth of my 4th son my award went down by approx £90 a week! How why what.........it seems that I had been misinformed & I was therefore receiving the max childcare entitlement of £140 pw (I was only entitled to 70% of £100 = £70 pw), not sure if any1 remembers but the breakdown of money received & what it was for was never stated on early notifications so I was completely unaware.

By time I had my 4th son I had to go on income support-after maternity money ended as my partner & father of my 4 sons died in a car accident whilst I was pregnant with son no 4 & I could not afford the £255 a wk childcare costs on my own to return to work.

So them taking £90 pw off me (which did not include the extra I should have been receiving for having another son or the baby element) really hit me hard!

As far as I was concerned it was their mistake, I did not know I was being overpaid & I made every effort to question them about my award in 2003.

They however did not agree; I finally got the £3640.00 I had by this time paid them back, refunded to me in April 2006!

 

It was a long & hard fight; they were relentless in their pursuit of me & were very inconsiderate. My MP contacting them made no difference whatsoever!

But I got there in the end (so much so that they actually refunded me twice-NO I have not brought this to their attention & I do not plan to, but I do think they'll work it out 1 day?!?!? But the pure hell & hardship I had to endure when I went from being in a partnership with both of us working full time to being widowed & on income support raising 4 kids alone puts me off bringing this to their attention, call it a little compensation payment!)

 

Facts I have learnt along the way:

 

Forget the helpline staff & the helpline managers; neither can help (& most would never even try!), YOU NEED TO SPECIFICALLY ASK FOR YOUR OVERPAYMENT TO BE LOOKED AT BY THE DIRECTORS OFFICE, this is a department within the tax credits office (they are not independent) but they are the only ones who can overturn/change a decision & you cannot go to an appeals tribunal unless they have looked at your case, (if you somehow got to court without this it would be 99% likely your case would be thrown out of court & you'd be back to square 1!) they don't seem to direct a lot (other benefit agencies call them adjudicators/decision makers) & it takes months if not years but they do eventually cave in; esp as if they disallow your dispute & the courts then say that they were wrong they get into trouble-3 strikes & you’re out so to speak!

 

They can legally deduct 25% from your current entitlement if you are working, 10% if you are receiving Income Support etc; this amount is per entitlement (ie if you are half way through the yr-say its end of Sept-& your are entitled to £50 pw tax credits, this is an annual award of £2600 for full yr & £1300 as its half way through yr, the 25% is only off the £1300 you are yet to be paid-not the full yrs entitlement; so you'd pay back £325 over remaining 6 months of yr & you'd receive £37.50 a wk-£45 pw if you were only repaying 10%) This amount DOES NOT change if you have a partner & if they are deducting more than this either contact you MP (this is 1 area that they can change with 1 phone call) or find your nearest tax credit office open to the public (there are over 2000 throughout the country but they aren’t well advertised-ask your local job centre where your nearest 1 is), go in there & the advisor will ring tax credits on your behalf to discuss your situation; REFUSE TO LEAVE THE OFFICE UNTIL THEY HAVE AMMENDED YOUR REPAYMENTS! If they try to intimidate you with the police, tell them to do it (in return tell them that you’ll ring your local newspaper & invite them down for the show!) DO NOT FORGET THAT IF THEY ARE DEDUCTING ANYTHING MORE THAN THE 25% OR 10% THEN THEY ARE ACTING UNLAWFULLY/ILLEGALLY & YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG; THIS STAND OFF HAS WORKED FOR MANY INDIVIDUALS.

 

If you are struggling for any reason (in or out of work) they must cease all deductions & have the case assessed by an adjudicator in the overpayments department, they should write to you further asking for a full breakdown of your incomings/outgoings; based on this they can pretty much do what they want; ie half your repayments & even write off the debt (or some of it). If they halved your repayments without halving the debt though, this would mean that you would pay the debt over twice the time & you would have to go through this hardship claim yearly!

 

You can appeal against any written entitlement you receive from them; this can even be a year down the line (if you'd been paying the debt off for that yr for example). To explain your delay in questioning your apparent overpayment, 'this is the first notification I have received confirming my debt' would be sufficient-your award notifications are not sent recorded delivery after all! (Just to reiterate, the appeal would not be at tribunal, but carried out by the director’s office within WFTC/CTC before that stage).

 

Your MP may be able to help, but mostly they can’t; I however have found that constantly hounding them on a daily basis (if you can afford the phone bill) works much better. But DO NOT ring the helpline; instead go straight through to the director’s office; this can be done by many ways; your MP can give you their direct line tel no, or you can ring the tax credits head office (tel: 020 7667 4001) they will either transfer your call or give you the direct line number for the director’s office; try for the latter! You can also write to the head office (this option also gets your dispute dealt with more quickly, their address:

 

Higher Complaints Department

Inland Revenue Head Office

Somerset House

Strand

London

WC2R 1LB

 

What happens if I have been overpaid tax credits?

If you have been overpaid tax credits, the Revenue will normally try to recover the overpayment by reducing your tax credit payments. They should not recover an overpayment that is the result of an ‘official error’ as long as you could not have reasonably been expected to realise you were being overpaid. The Revenue also has the discretion not to recover an overpayment if you can show that this will cause you hardship.

Seek advice if you are told by the Revenue that you’ve been overpaid or are likely to be overpaid. If you dispute that an overpayment has occurred or dispute the amount of the overpayment, you can lodge an appeal.

But if you accept you’ve been overpaid, you have no right of appeal against a Revenue decision to recover the money. Instead you can ask them to use their discretion not to recover it. If they insist on recovery you can challenge this through the Revenue’s complaints procedure.

If you are disputing the recovery of an overpayment on the basis of official error, the Revenue should suspend further deductions until they have made a decision on your case. For more information about tax credit overpayments phone our helpline.

 

For more advise on Tax credits overpayments see leaflet COP26; which can be found online here:

 

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/cop26.pdf

 

Hope that’s helped?

 

Mel.

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Mel

 

Just a question but what is classed as a official error?

 

My Mum is dyslexic and as a result she went down to the local tax office and THEY filled out the paperwork on her behalf. Took copies of all documents etc and basically said sign here after everything was done.

 

now she has been told that she was overpaid buy over £5,000.00 and they are taking this off her but have admitted that the local tax office may have made the mistake. All tax credits stuff has been taken to the local office and explained to her and as far as she is concerned she gave them the info they asked for so they are in the wrong.

 

Is this classed as a error on there part or mums or is this classed as a official error.

OFT debt collection guidance

 

Please remember the only stupid question is the one you dont ask so dont worry about asking the stupid questions.

 

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Mel

 

Just a question but what is classed as a official error?

 

My Mum is dyslexic and as a result she went down to the local tax office and THEY filled out the paperwork on her behalf. Took copies of all documents etc and basically said sign here after everything was done.

 

now she has been told that she was overpaid buy over £5,000.00 and they are taking this off her but have admitted that the local tax office may have made the mistake. All tax credits stuff has been taken to the local office and explained to her and as far as she is concerned she gave them the info they asked for so they are in the wrong.

 

Is this classed as a error on there part or mums or is this classed as a official error.

 

Hi Godmother,

 

This is classed as an official error; your mum is Dyslexic, therefore she could not have possibly been even expected to read through the completed form (let alone actually made sense of it); if you for example had completed her application incorrectly she would more than likely be responsible for the overpayment, but as it was actually 1 of them who completed the form it's there error!

 

They may try & say that she misinformed them at the interview (they prob will) don't get too upset, they'll try this with every individual in the hope that they walk away; every error THEY make is noted & publicised, so they'd be doing their jobs incorrectly if they did not try to convince you that it was your (your mum's) mistake!

 

(Just to point out that I am actually a civil servant (hence reasons for me knowing a lot about their procedures), I am not however the enemy & me working for DWP did absolutely nothing to get my complaint resolved any faster!) I still think that they are absolutely useless!

 

Here is a pasted part of their official error document I happened to have:

 

 

2. Interpretation

 

(1) In these Regulations -

"The Board" means the Commissioners of Inland Revenue;

"Official error" means an error relating to a tax credit made by -

(a) An officer of the Board,

(b) An officer of the Department for Work and Pensions,

© An officer of the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland, or

(d) A person providing services to the Board or to an authority mentioned in paragraph (b) or © of this definition, in connection with a tax credit or credits, to which the claimant, or any of the claimants, or any person acting for him, or any of them, did not materially contribute, excluding any error of law which is shown to have been an error by virtue of a subsequent decision by a Social Security Commissioner or by a court;"

 

3 [No heading]

 

(1) A decision under section 14(1), 15(1), 16(1), 18(1), (5), (6) or (9), 19(3) or 20(1) or (4) may be revised in favour of the person or persons to whom it relates if it is incorrect by reason of official error, subject to the following paragraphs.

(2) In revising a decision, the officer or person in question need not consider any issue that is not raised by the application for revision by the claimant or claimants or, as the case may be, did not cause him to act on his own initiative.

(3) A decision mentioned in paragraph (1) may be revised at any time not later than five years after the end of the tax year to which the decision relates.

 

A word of advice for you & your mum; don't be intimidated by them, unless they videod the origional interview & they are correct (we know they are not & they did not) they cannot possibly try to blame your mum. They are there to provide a service for Dyslexic people & it is their job/responsibility to get it correct 1st time every time! If you can get it, a doctors letter to confirm your mum is Dyslexic forwarded onto their head office with a covering letter will move this on considerably (esp if you mention going public with this!). Another useful aid I've found is Welfare Rights; they often set up drop in advise centre's at your local library & I feel that they would love this kind of problem (CAB are yet to help me in anyway with any prob!)

Hope this helps; please feel free to pm me if you have any more questions (or post them on this thread) & I’ll do anything I can to help,

 

Mel.

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