LCS Harassment

[discod2014]

myself along with my partner have both had letters from LCS saying we owe them money for HMRC over payments.

 

I wrote to LCS and asked them what year this was from and they ignored me.

I wrote again and included a SAR request form which again was ignored.

The last letter came yesterday with the usual good will be seized,county court etc (maybe)

 

They keep ringing my house and my partner answered and gave them all of his information although i had told him not to.

 

They gave him number for a company who helps deal with these debts and how you can pay.

He rang them got a reference number and waited.

 

Yesterday LCS rang AGAIN and despite him giving them the reference number

they told him because the debt is owed to the government

all other debts like credit card repayments,loan payments are not important

and they are legally to be paid first so he offered them 5 quid a week which after an argument they accepted.

 

Im the other end of the scale I won't talk to them on the phone

i want to know what year this is owed from and how i was over paid

yet still they are sending me letters telling me not to ignore them.

 

Whats my next step please

 

I feel I have a right to know when I owe this from and if I owe it then I will offer a repayment.

 

..they have also told me all repayments for the whole amount owing have to be made within 12 months..is this true please?

 

I owe 1120.50.

Any template letters to send these with big words and legal quotes please?

Thank you in advance.

[discod2014]

I have also had a tax credit rewards letter this week it states the following

Overpayments

*amount* has already been collected back from you

*amount* will be collected from the rest of your payments from this award (my award now is 4.55 a week)

*amount* is an adjustment to put your record right

*amount* will be collected from future awards by reducing your payments under section 29(4) of the tax credits act.

 

So where does it say you also owe 1120 which we will be collecting via LCS...nowhere so should I just send LCS a copy of this letter ??

[dx100uk]

never ever pay or talk to a DCA on a gov't debt.

THEY HAVE NO LEGAL POWERS AT ALL>

they ARE NOT BAILIFFS.

 

and what your other half was told on the phone IS A LIE.

 

he does NOT need to pay them.

 

if you two owe ANYTHING then deal and pay HMRC only.

 

shame he got spoofed into paying ..STOP NOW

shame both of you have talking to them on the phone STOP THAT NOW

 

you simply IGNORE any DCA on a Gov't debt

 

end off

 

theres nowt they can do

read the letters PROPERLY..

doesn't say WILL anywhere ANYTHING>

[discod2014]

Thank you

[lilyx0xmunster]

how about sending an SAR to HMRC playing detective to actually see if you do owe said debt and whether it was their mistake or not?

 

 

I also believe that if said SAR involves more than 40 hours of searching (when you play detective in your files) then the SAR becomes free..

 

 

I found this out when questioning my own HMRC so called 'debt' turned out they owed me money after i proved I have informed them of every single change along the way.. just a thought.

[GamerNic]

I used to work with tax credits

- it's probably an overpayment from an old joint or single claim, especially if you split up a few times.

You may have had in-year recovery, cross year recovery or cross award recovery depending on how many overpayments you have and from when.

 

A SAR may not help at this stage,

I'd find out what tax year and how it happened

- SAR won't tell you that so best thing to do is call the tax credit helpline for a year and explanation.

 

The advisor can go through each tax year to check so they can confirm which years have overpayments and *should* be able to tell you why.

 

Don't ask for a written explanation as they are usually pointless, best thing is an experienced advisor to talk to.

 

You can ask for copies of award notices but only for a certain time back.

Then if you need more info a SAR will be easier as you can ask for relevant paper / call info for the right time period.

 

In my experience most overpayments are claimant's fault and they will have been clearly shown on award notices so be prepared that you might well owe this. Good luck.

[dx100uk]

thanks for that wisdom

but the SAR is free to HMRC and if they cant produce the relevant info

tough on them

they have to prove their claim.

 

please don't go ringing anyone

 

you need a papertrail

dx

[GamerNic]

/\ slightly [removed] response but okay.

I dont owe HMRC [removed] just trying to help the OP

 

 

- they will get all the info from a SAR but I doubt it will have a bit that says that's why it happened,

they will have to trawl through years of award notices to find it.

 

 

My advice is to call first thing,

call is recorded so can get that on a SAR later then at least they have a smaller time window.

 

 

Just my opinion from experience.

Edited September 20, 2016 by dx100uk
behave - dx

[discod2014]

The SAR never turned up they sent me a letter saying its from 2014 and I have today had my FINAL NOTICE....now what please?

Its not from splitting up and getting back together with a partner as we have only been together four years and he only moved in two years ago....I don't have the documents to go through to find out how and why this happened.

[dx100uk]

Final notice from whom?

[discod2014]

Final notice from whom?

 

LCS the people chasing me for this debt

[smokiejoe]

To get clarity on what the overpayment is for, contact the helpline on 0345 300 3900 and ask them to confirm what amounts are outstanding, from what years, and for what reason.

 

They can see this easily, especially recent issues. They should be able to confirm the year any outstanding amounts are from, whether it was a single or joint claim, if it was from an overpayment of working element, child element or any other additional element that might have been retrospectively removed (such as childcare). They can also see the award notices issued following the end of the previous claim, and if you completed the end of year declaration for the overpaid claim.

 

It sounds to me that you had a single claim, your partner moved in and you may not have had your claim updated soon enough to stop payments to you being overpaid as a result. It's common enough.

 

You say LCS have written to both you and your partner. Was it for the same overpayment? If so, no matter what you are trying to do, it seems your partner has ignored you and made arrangements to deal with LCS. If for separate previous awards (as it sounds because £5 per week isn't going to pay back £1120.50 in 12 months), then tell LCS you want the debt transferred back to HMRC and that you won't deal with them anymore.

 

You can then get in touch with HMRC and make arangements to repay over a period of time. They will discuss it and agree an amount and timescale with you that should be more reasonable.

 

Did you ever dispute the overpayment when the final award notice came through? Did you have Notional Entitlement requested against the overpayment if there was a delay between your partner moving in and telling HMRC about the change?

 

Regards the latest award notice from HMRC. That sounds like it's only dealing with the award details since you became a couple and any overpayments from past and current awards for that joint claim.

 

It's simply telling you what's been recovered to date from the current award (have an outstanding overpayment as a joint claim from 2014/15, 2015/16?).

 

Telling you how much they adjusted the current award (in year adjustment, probably as a result of the finalisation of the declaration and impact on payments made since 6th April 2016).

 

The balance to be set against any future awards that haven't been scheduled for collection in the current year. Has nothing to so with overpayments from previous claims, and wouldn't mention them as not being collected within this award (would have shown as Cross Award Recovery).

 

When calling to agree recovery, remember to tell them you are already paying back overpayments through your current claim and ask for one or the other payments to be deferred until the other is completed, or you'll suffer as a result of dual recovery.

 

S

Edited October 19, 2016 by smokiejoe
Dual Recovery.

[dx100uk]

lcs the people chasing me for this debt

 

 

you totally ignore lcs.

[discod2014]

To get clarity on what the overpayment is for, contact the helpline on 0345 300 3900 and ask them to confirm what amounts are outstanding, from what years, and for what reason.

 

They can see this easily, especially recent issues. They should be able to confirm the year any outstanding amounts are from, whether it was a single or joint claim, if it was from an overpayment of working element, child element or any other additional element that might have been retrospectively removed (such as childcare). They can also see the award notices issued following the end of the previous claim, and if you completed the end of year declaration for the overpaid claim.

 

It sounds to me that you had a single claim, your partner moved in and you may not have had your claim updated soon enough to stop payments to you being overpaid as a result. It's common enough.

 

You say LCS have written to both you and your partner. Was it for the same overpayment? If so, no matter what you are trying to do, it seems your partner has ignored you and made arrangements to deal with LCS. If for separate previous awards (as it sounds because £5 per week isn't going to pay back £1120.50 in 12 months), then tell LCS you want the debt transferred back to HMRC and that you won't deal with them anymore.

 

You can then get in touch with HMRC and make arangements to repay over a period of time. They will discuss it and agree an amount and timescale with you that should be more reasonable.

 

Did you ever dispute the overpayment when the final award notice came through? Did you have Notional Entitlement requested against the overpayment if there was a delay between your partner moving in and telling HMRC about the change?

 

Regards the latest award notice from HMRC. That sounds like it's only dealing with the award details since you became a couple and any overpayments from past and current awards for that joint claim.

 

It's simply telling you what's been recovered to date from the current award (have an outstanding overpayment as a joint claim from 2014/15, 2015/16?).

 

Telling you how much they adjusted the current award (in year adjustment, probably as a result of the finalisation of the declaration and impact on payments made since 6th April 2016).

 

The balance to be set against any future awards that haven't been scheduled for collection in the current year. Has nothing to so with overpayments from previous claims, and wouldn't mention them as not being collected within this award (would have shown as Cross Award Recovery).

 

When calling to agree recovery, remember to tell them you are already paying back overpayments through your current claim and ask for one or the other payments to be deferred until the other is completed, or you'll suffer as a result of dual recovery.

 

S

 

My partner had a letter the same time but for a different amount his letter was separate to mine and I don't get why it took them two years to bring this over payment to my attention.

But thank you for your advice