Working Tax Credit Disaster?

My partner is being hounded by the Inland Revenue for supposed over payment of Working Tax Credit. Neither of us are daft (I think), but we just cannot work where or why these over payments have come from. PLEASE can someone explain in simple terms, why they have decided that she has been paid too much - what do they base that decision on?
Each year the Tax Credit Award letter from the Inland Revenue suggests that "we will reduce your tax credit payments until we have collected the overpaid amount". However they have now sent round a debt managent agent and still they advise more overpayments have been made. This is a nightmare!

i am sorry to hear that you have had such a hard time with this

Hypothetically, this scenario would usually be recovered from your next years payments or they would ask you to pay back the overpayment, have they given you a nil award for the next year? this would explain why they have taken further action however, you should have received a letter on how to pay back your overpayment before any debt collectors are sent round.

tax credits system works by looking at your circumstance when you claim then calculating your annual amount. if you don't report a change that happened during year until the end of the year, the system will re-calculate what you should have received at renewal stage when you confirm your circumstances and income (at the end of the year). this is why a lot of overpayments happen.

so long as you have told them all your changes in circumstances, income etc. as they happened and not at the end of the year you should do the following:

check with tax credit office that all of your records are correct, and going back to the beginning of your first claim, go over all of your employment dates and hours or benefits history, childcare costs and hours, your living together situation if you have changed since you first claimed, addresses, incomes for each year, childrens education dates if over 16 and dates they lived with you. ask them to correct any details they have wrong. if there are any changes the system should re-calculate your awards and send you out new award notices but if you don't receive any, ring them back to see what difference this has made to your entitlements over each of the years you have claimed. if you have bank statements showing the credits you have received you can also confirm the payments their records show.

if this still leaves you with an overpayment you are unhappy with, you can get a full written explanation and breakdown of the overpayment from the overpayments department of the tax credit office. you should write to them to request this. i would also write and ask what records they hold of your correspondence with them for the year in question to make sure they tally with your claims following your phone call. you can ask for a COP1 form which details the complaints procedure in case you need it.

if you still don't agree with their overpayment, you could take it to your citizens advice office and they will be able to help you to check it over again.

if you think the overpayment is still incorrect you should go to your MP although I don't know how much help this will be as they get a lot of Tax Credit related issues these days !!

if it works out that the overpayment is unjust and you have been put through undue stress because of their miscalculation, you can get a small amount of compensation but you will need to ask them for it.

good luck

You need specialist advice/help - if you can't afford to see a specialist lawyer, go to your local Citizen's Advice: they're tops for these sorts of problems.

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

The first step is to get down to the CAB, they can help you fight the overpayment clawback as long as you have provided the Inland Revenue with all the correct circumstances and any change of circumstances that may have happened during that years award. If it is found that it is the mistake of the Inland Rev (which it generally is because of the system they use, not the staff!) then they should not be able to claim back the overpayment. If however they insist upon collecting it the magic word is "hardship" tell them that as a result of them taking back this money you are suffering financial hardship then they should be more flexible about the repayments. I hope this helps!

p.s Log on to the Citizens Advice Bureau website they have a lot of advise on there regarding this issue and you may even be able to download the forms, but it is best to complete these with them. Best of luck x

ring them and tell them they are not making themselves clear why they are asking you to repay it, so you are contacting a solicter, remember to speak to a manager and get the name, time and date you spoke to them

Please all of you put your names down on this petition it has reached 185, let's hope someone takes notice of our problems with the tax credit fiasco. Good luck to you all. FRED.http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/taxmistakes/

Contact your local MP in writing. Explain the situation. And ask them to liase with Inland Revenue on your behlaf. Politically it's a hot topic, I did this after nearly a year of problems, every time I phoned or wrote I got different answers, no-one knew what was going on and in the meantime they stopped paying me to reclaim a supposed over payment. Within a week of my MP being in touch with the Inland Revenue there was an apology and a payment of all they had erroneously taken off me in my bank account.

Hope this helps and good luck, I know how frustrating it got.

sue them!!! god i cant belive it happend to you. if they cant do their job properly make sure you make them pay you for all distress they caused you. ring them up or contact your solicitor. good luck.

i am having some hassle too, my partner and i moved in together in 2005 to which i very stupidly didnt notify them of however i have admitted to this now but they are now looking at the past to my previous address where i lived on my own with my son, yeah my now partner was my boyfriend at the time but he didnt live with me so i didnt declare that i have a cohabitant - they are trying to get me because he used my address for a few things as he didnt really have a fixed abode at the time. Its a nitemare!!!

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