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Tax credits overpayment - over £10,000 in 2 years :(


thecornflake
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Thought I'd start a new thread rather than hijacking other people's.

 

Basically I had one of the enquiry letters at the beginning of the week, stating what I told them my income was last year for the previous tax year was different to what they held on their system.

 

It seems they never updated the system when I told them I had restarted work a couple of years ago so they assumed I was on benefits for the last 2 years. I stopped working int he April, so when the renewal stuff came through we filled it in stating about my not working and being on JSA. However I started working again in June and we called and told them. They said to send the offer letter from my employer showing the salary. We received 3 letters on the same day in the August, mostly saying 'Thank you for letting us know about a change in your circumstances'. Looking closely these letters either list no income details at all, or show the JSA income but then list the previous years income (i.e. proper job income) at the bottom of the column. So if you just glance at the bottom of the figures you see a figure that looks reasonable.

 

There are a few silyl mistakes in these letters, the best one is a letter on the 28th August saying to fill in and return a form by the end of July. They also get our names wrong on several occassions. Assuming this goes to court which I have a feeling it will because of the amounts involved I'm hoping this helps to question their credibitliy and ability to keep correct information.

 

They've overpaid around £12,000. I'll admit it was our fault for not noticing they were using benefits income. Basically we didn't check thoroughly enough and they didn't make the change we told them about.

 

It really bugs me that they already have the information on exactly how much you're earning, yet they ask you to tell them every year. They're already trying to claim back tax I didn't pay last year because my company didn't tell them about one of my taxable benefits. And they had the information to discover the discrepancy. Surely just doing this for everyone woudl not only save the huge volumes of paper wasted every April but also remove any chance of discrepancies or the option for people to purposely lie about their income.

 

This is also very annoying because I've just got back on track after having years of not managing financially. At the best though we'll be £143 per WEEK worse off because we no longer qualify for any of the tax credits, and we'll have to pay it back somehow, and the unpaid tax repayment this year is £200/month and there's presumably going to be a penalty.

 

I've just called them and the guy listened for about a minute as I started going through my notes and then cut me off and said he'd pass the information on to the actual team who deal with these. I didn't get a chance to finish my explanation, and he said he didn't know anything about them anyway so couldn't say when I would hear back.

 

I'll keep this updated with what happens.

If you found this post useful please click on the scales above.

 

Egg - £400 - Prelim sent. On hold.

Mint - On the list Est £800

GE Capital - On the list (3 accounts!) Est £4000

 

MBNA - £545 Prelim sent 13/11/2006

LBA sent 1/12/2006

£350 partial payment received 18/12/2006.

Full settlement received 20/1/07

 

NatWest - Est £4000 not incl interest

Data Protection Act Sent 10/1/07

Statements received 24/1/07

Prelim sent 3/2/07

Full Settlement received 22/2/07

 

The contents of this post are the sole opinions of The Cornflake and not necessarily the opinions of any other members of this group. They do not constitute sound legal or financial advice and if in doubt you are advised to seek advice from a qualified professional

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Hi Cornflakes

My goodness what a story.

I am on the IPod at the moment so can't seem to post a link, but if you google COP 26 (the code of practice for overpayment of tax credits) I think you will find some useful information to your advantage.

Basically, if the tax credit office (TCO) have failed to make proper and timely use of the information with which they were supplied then the overpayment can be written off.

You may have to make a subject access request for details of the calls etc but write to them first making sure that you write "FORMAL COMPLAINT" at the top of your letter so that it is easily identifiable as such when it gets to the TCO post room and send it by recorded delivery.

If you do need to ring, ask to speak to a HO (higher officer) or a SO(senior officer) the person you spoke to on the helpline was probably on a fixed term contract and knew less than you did.

At the end of the day you are a member of the public who has taken all reasonable steps to keep TCO updated of changes in your circumstances, if they've messed up, you shouldn't suffer any detriment because if that.

Kind regards, happy to discuss!

Gbarbm

Gbarbm

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Thanks, will look into that. Putting together a letter to send to them with all the details as I didn't get to mention most of the stuff I wanted to.

If you found this post useful please click on the scales above.

 

Egg - £400 - Prelim sent. On hold.

Mint - On the list Est £800

GE Capital - On the list (3 accounts!) Est £4000

 

MBNA - £545 Prelim sent 13/11/2006

LBA sent 1/12/2006

£350 partial payment received 18/12/2006.

Full settlement received 20/1/07

 

NatWest - Est £4000 not incl interest

Data Protection Act Sent 10/1/07

Statements received 24/1/07

Prelim sent 3/2/07

Full Settlement received 22/2/07

 

The contents of this post are the sole opinions of The Cornflake and not necessarily the opinions of any other members of this group. They do not constitute sound legal or financial advice and if in doubt you are advised to seek advice from a qualified professional

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I've finished writing my letter, to be posted tomorrow (recorded of course). I won't paste it here unless this issue goes much further as it's four pages long :)

If you found this post useful please click on the scales above.

 

Egg - £400 - Prelim sent. On hold.

Mint - On the list Est £800

GE Capital - On the list (3 accounts!) Est £4000

 

MBNA - £545 Prelim sent 13/11/2006

LBA sent 1/12/2006

£350 partial payment received 18/12/2006.

Full settlement received 20/1/07

 

NatWest - Est £4000 not incl interest

Data Protection Act Sent 10/1/07

Statements received 24/1/07

Prelim sent 3/2/07

Full Settlement received 22/2/07

 

The contents of this post are the sole opinions of The Cornflake and not necessarily the opinions of any other members of this group. They do not constitute sound legal or financial advice and if in doubt you are advised to seek advice from a qualified professional

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Thanks for the support. I was coping yesterday but no so well today. I used to almost enjoy fighting this stuff back when it was bank charges etc, nowadays I don't seem to have it in me any more. I woke up feeling very upset, financial issues I can deal with but it's the prospect of possible prosecution that really worries me - I'm CRB checked every 6 months because of what I do and my wife runs a Group of Brownies which she absolutely loves doing but she would lose that too with a criminal record.

If you found this post useful please click on the scales above.

 

Egg - £400 - Prelim sent. On hold.

Mint - On the list Est £800

GE Capital - On the list (3 accounts!) Est £4000

 

MBNA - £545 Prelim sent 13/11/2006

LBA sent 1/12/2006

£350 partial payment received 18/12/2006.

Full settlement received 20/1/07

 

NatWest - Est £4000 not incl interest

Data Protection Act Sent 10/1/07

Statements received 24/1/07

Prelim sent 3/2/07

Full Settlement received 22/2/07

 

The contents of this post are the sole opinions of The Cornflake and not necessarily the opinions of any other members of this group. They do not constitute sound legal or financial advice and if in doubt you are advised to seek advice from a qualified professional

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Well from what you've said the errors are down to them anyway, so try not to worry too much (easy for me to say I know)

If you need any further help when you get a response then just give me a shout

Kind regards

Gbarbm

Gbarbm

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