Child Tax Credits Overpayment

[OfW0lfAndMan]

Last year between Sept/Oct we received a letter from HMRC saying we have been overpaid CTC because we hadn't told them our son had left further education.

 

We told them in July he had left college, but they said they couldn't do anything to change our claim until September and we'd have to call back then, but a note would be made re the phonecall. We left it at that. Rang them in September to tell them again as advised and referred to our earlier call in July. Advisor said she couldn't find any notes re this call and we would have to repay the overpayment. We told Child Benefit of the change in July and they altered our award straight away wihtout any problems.

 

We appealed the decision and heard nothing until Jan 2013 when we had a letter saying they have our appeal and would write to us with a decision. The decision was they were right and we were wrong as we had not told them about the change.

 

We sent 2 letters in June with copies of our phone bills for June and Septemeber 2012 showing 3 calls to HMRC and a further letter this month. So far we have not received any reply.

 

Does HMRC have a policy by which they should have to reply to customers letters within a certain timescale, as does the DWP? :???:

Edited July 11, 2013 by OfW0lfAndMan
To add additional info.

[What should I do?]

Recent news reports stated that HMRC had a 15 day timescale for replying to letters but they only achieved this in a small percentage of cases! I had the same issue with them at the end of last year - they denied having a record of my call to advise of my daughter leaving college & I am now having to repay the money (although there were other issues aswell). Good luck with getting it sorted.