Tax Credit Overpayment

[Dalight]

Hoping for some help.

 

Where to begin!

2005 july 7th, my ex wife an i split up, informed the Child tax ppl of the circumstances and out joint claim ended.

December 2008 i had a card pushed throught my letterbox asking for me to telephone my local tax office, I did this on my return from work to be told they had been sent to find me to tel lme i owed £11000 in overpaid Tax credits, I asked why its had taken over 3 yrs and the guy could not explain it as i have not mioved house in 20 yrs and always been at the address and never had any letters since my ex wife left.

Any way i appealed and heard nothing, i tried to claim benifitsand never had any replies.

December 2009 must be an xmas thing as another tax officer this time from cardiff 5 hours away came to my house and left a letter about the same thing, i responded to her and she told mt eagain to write to the tax ppl explaining the situation and my case would be put on hold. I phoned the tax office to be told they had no idea why these ppl had come to my house? Now im confused, so i wrote another letter asking for all information they held on me and a few weeks passed i got a pack in the post followed by a cd, i went throught it al land found a letter saying we had recieved the correct amount of money until the day our joint claim had ended and another letter with official error written on it and some annual renewal froms were missing so i could not see where the overpayment had arisen from, so i wrote with the info i had appealing, 9 months later i got a reply saying i had renewed my annual forms by phone and i owed £900 in total, confused by the vast drop in amounts i again wrote a letter of complaint asking them to investigaste fuly my case and to why i had not got in my possesion copie of my ex wifes claim as a single parent and al lher new bank details! All i got was an apology and asked to send them back which i refused! Now i have had a letter saying i owe £8000, i give up, the next step i have is to write to an adjudicator to desolve this situation, i dont feel i owe them the money as they were always informed of job changes and our split, they are not providing me with info to where they found this overpayment from either, Is there a timescale to them claiming this money as they have not made any attempt until 2008 to contact me which shows they are clueless and the letters i have quoting vast amounts is unreal, the data protection breach also shows how incompetant these ppl are. Ijust dont know wht to do now, i have complained and got knowhere.

[MARTIN3030]

They are not subject to limitations unfortunately.

A case of what the left hand and right hand etc...

 

Couple of questions;

 

I take it the kids stayed with your wife ? So she left with the kids and went to another address ?

 

Can you remember how you informed the Tax office in 2005 that you had split ?Was it in writing or by phone ?

 

How was the calculation of 11k made ? what was you getting a month ?

 

So from the reduction to £900 theres obv something amiss.

 

I think a full subject access request would be in order,of course they would not be able to supply details of your wifes dealings,it shoul neverthless give you something to go on.

[Dalight]

Hi,

Yes my wife left and went to another address, They were informed of this by her on the day over the phone and thats when she started a single claim, I do have correspondance off them to confirm this when they sent me a pile of paperwork when i requested all information and renewal forms they had off me, I have gone through the forms and cannot see where this amount of money has come from as they were always informed of job changes and overtime and when my ex wife went onto materity etc, there are two forms missing which despite requesting they said in one letter they did not have them, yet in another letter said they did! I have even offered to go to a tax office with the paperwork they sent me and go through it all yet they even refuse to do this , what they dont seem to grasp is every bit of paper work i have in my possesion is what they sent to me when i asked for all info they had on this case yet they refuse to investigate their own letters they just seem to denie everything! I'm at a loss at what to do, the latest letter now says i owe just under £8000 and if im not happy with the way they dealt with my case the address of an adjudicator is on the form for me to write to!

[reallymadwoman]

This is unfortunately common with tax credits. You do now need to send this to the adjudicator, but be aware that it could be at least a year before he gets to your case and though in the meantime any recovery action should be put on hold you may continue to be chased for repayment.

 

Before starting, go through all the paperwork they have supplied and put it in order according to the tax year it relates to. After that go through each pile in turn and write a sort of 'diary' of what happened and when.

 

Things to look at in particular are the list of payments made - look for any that are more than usual, and try to relate them to a change in circumstances that you told them about. Look very carefully at any payments made on your joint claim after the separation - if there are any, then this is probably where the overpayment arose. Also check how quickly they amended payments after any other change of circumstances, particularly if you were claiming in the first couple of years (2003-2005) as this was when their systems were totally useless.

 

When you've done all that (and it won't be quick!) summarise what you think happened and send it off to the adjudicator. At some point they will send what you've written to tax credits who will produce a report which will be sent to you. It was only at this point that I found out how my overpayment actually happened, but that's as far as things have got at the moment.

 

Good luck!

[Dalight]

Thanks for the information, i'll be sorting throught things in the next few days, Do i have to write to the adjudicator before hand to advise what my intention is?

[reallymadwoman]

No, wait until you've got everything together.

[MARTIN3030]

Yes if you already have a good paper trail,then theres no need for a SAR.

[Dalight]

Thanks, i will keep you informed of how its going!