Advantis Chasing Alledged Tax Credit Debt

[Belfin]

Hi All,

 

Way back in 2014 my wife and I started getting letters from HMRC saying we had been overpaid child tax credits to the sum of £180.12p dating from 2008. My wife and I never claimed any child tax credits for this year, as we were fed up with constantly being overpaid and having to pay money back from previous years. It was just not worth the hassle!

 

We queried HMRC about how this debt was possible when no claim had been made. They were always evasive and less than helpful. I asked for everything to be put into writing, a reasonable request which they have never been able to do.

 

After searching and reading other threads on here, I sent them the 'Prove it letter' and the 'Limitations Act' letter. They tried it on a couple more times, then all went quiet for a few months.

 

On Friday my wife received a letter from Advantis Debt Collection Centre stating that they have been appointed by HMRC to collect the £180.12p. Yesterday I received an identical letter claiming £180.12p from me too.

 

Today my wife had a text message from Advantis telling her to call them to discuss an 'urgent business matter'.

 

Any advice or guidance as to what we should do now would be very gratefully appreciated!

 

Cheers, Paul.

[Old Cogger]

do as I did Ignore them - you have an outstanding dispute with tax credits,, Advantis is just a low life DCA no powers

[dx100uk]

Never pay a fleecing dca on a govt debt

 

Ignore then

They are not bailiffs

And have no such legal powers

[Belfin]

Thanks very much for the help.

 

My wife had a call from them again today (01782 code), so we shall block them and ignore them.

 

Cheers, Paul.

[dx100uk]

[ericsbrother]

you could demand a statement of account to HMRC showing every payment made and an explanation of how they calculated that an overpayment was made.

They cannot do this and rely upon assumptions rather than having an audit trail. I got sent over £10k's worth of cheques one year when I wasnt claiming anything and they demanded the moany back 2 years later. They insisted that the money had been paid by BACS but when I sent them photocopies of the uncashed cheques and demanded to see a proper statement of account they admitted they didnt even keep a record of who the numbered cheques were sent to nor any bank credit details so they actually rely on you basically admitting the payments were received. That is why they pass it on to a dca as they would have no evidence for a court claim.

BTW they actually owed me £8k from the year before but they screwed up and got a rollocking from the Parliamentary Ombudsman after my MP got involved. I never actually got that money. because again they sent out a cheque and then demanded the money back as they claimed it was paid twice so I didnt cash them either.