Tax Credits O/P - trying to prove their error - Help please

[anxious!!]

To try and cut a long story short in the hope that someone can offer me some advice (as cant get to the Citizens Advice until next week)

 

In 2009 I had a joint claim with my partner, we only recvd the bare minimum of £10 a week as my partner earnt approx £40k

I rang them and advised them that I was now self employed (I was selling my handmade crafts and wanted it to be legal) and that I would earn approx £100 at the end of the tax year, this was an estimate that I gave them

A new tax credit letter came through that said my credits would go up to over £100 a week!!

I questioned this by calling them up as I couldnt understand the increase, I was confirmed this was all okay and the figures were right

 

To my dismay, I rang at the end of the tax year to confirm I had in fact had a minus in my self employed earnings to be told that by looking at the records I had been overpaid

The initial call I made and the girl who took it, actually took my partner off the system and said that it was a joint claim as we now only earned £100 a year!!!! between us!!!!

The shock was unbelievable and I broke down and explained everything to her

I went through the dispute and the answer I got back was that no calls could be found to prove that I had rang and questioned it so therefore I had to pay the amount back!

Again the shock was too much and I broke down

At this time I remember ringing from my mobile phone so knew it would be itemised somewhere so I applied for copies of all statements (which never arrived)

By this time the new tax credits came through and I like an idiot admitted defeat and they agreed to take the new £10 a week tax credit as payment towards my overpayment!

 

My overpayment is £7000...............

 

Today I recvd a letter with a paying slip saying I need to pay £6800...........

Again the shock hit me and I rang them up in tears and explained this whole sorry mess again, to be told there was nothing he could do but offer me £191 monthly payments to reduce and pay the bill off!

I am beside myself

*The reason this all came about is because of the girl on the phone deleting my partners details, this isnt enough and tax credits said I should have read and reread the new tax form that came to me, which I believe I did, doesnt everyone just look at the figures! To be honest I just didnt see that they had reduced my partners details to nothing amid all the numbers on the form

 

*They are saying that because they cant find my phone calls I have no proof that I didnt enquire about it!!

 

Please help, I've contacted vodafone again to send ALL statements for this particular phone number (which I now dont have and hope they can still help me)

I'm going to see the citizens advice next week

 

Is there anything else I can do, can I not state that from the initial phonecall the error is in their hands!

I seriously cannot pay this money back, my partner works away a month at a time and I am left at home with two young boys. Struggling to make ends meet now.

Please help with advice, it would be appreciated so much

[honeybee13]

Hello there. What a tough time for you.

 

I expect someone in the know will be along soon, but not everyone here understands tax credit, me for a start, sorry.

 

If you need speak to them again, make sure you ask for the person's name and make a note of that and the date and time of your call and details of what was said. Hopefully, your phone records will help them track down your previous calls.

 

My best, HB

[Life-Goes-On]

AFAIK if there was an error and they send you paperwork that contained the error, then the onus is on you to inform them of that error if it is reasonable to spot.

 

If they sent paperwork saying your partner was earning nothing, then I would expect that would be classed as reasonable to spot.

 

When you rung up to confirm it was right, did you state that your partner was earning £40k

(Would help if you could prove that phone call)

 

EDIT

Unless you pointed out the error, to them the calculation would have been correct.

Edited June 22, 2011 by Life-Goes-On

[Life-Goes-On]

Sadly even if you supply proof I believe you still have to repay the money back,

but will help reduce any penalty that they might impose. (or have they already set a penalty?)

[anxious!!]

Thanks for the replies so far

in answer to 'life goes on' - after my initial conversation with them i was then sent a new tax credits form with all the details on, to which I couldnt see or pick out the fact that my partners wage had been reduced to nothing! as it was still also showing the £40k amount on different lines on the form

when i rang up to query the increased amount of credits and said surely it was wrong they confirmed it was correct on the phone obviously going by the fact the lady previously had deleted his income

 

I'm in a no win situation really arent i, they made the error initially, the forms are difficult to understand as it is, i queried it, they've won!

[flumps1976]

I had a very similar experience myself in 2003/2004 when they removed my partners income when he chages jobs and only took my maternity pay into consideration. On receipt of the award notice I called to advise them that they had got the award wrong and we were hit by an overpaynent, they wouldn't allow me to repay it there and then and was told not to touch the money they had overpaid as it would be neede in the April on renewal, long story short we had to live for a period of 6 months on 680pcm with outgoings of £600pcm leaving £80 for general living expenses, food and petrol. My parner walked 10 miles a day to and from work as we were too scared to touch this money due to the information we were given. Our overpayment was then calculated and took 2 1/2 years to clear haviong our awards reduced by 25%. Believe me I made an appeal and was told the original decision stood as I knew the award was incorrect and called to rectify the mistake. So I asked if /I had just assumed the details were correct it would have been different and was told no I should have realised (as I did). I think practically every overpayment is fair game for them to recover sorry

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Please help, I've contacted vodafone again to send ALL statements for this particular phone number (which I now dont have and hope they can still help me)

I'm going to see the citizens advice next week

 

Hi anxious!!,

 

I hope you've now received what you needed from us.

 

However, in the event that you didn't you're welcome to email the details of the account in question over to the Web Relations Team by following the contact information in our pinned thread here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?213340-Vodafone-Webteam-for-Customers-With-Problems

 

Once you've sent it you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. To make sure it reaches us could you update the thread with this and we'll get back to you as soon as possible?

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK