tax credit overpayment? WTF

[shamen]

So tax credits have written to us. This is a bit silly

In 2009 I had a job until September, and earned 29,000 between april and september

I lost my job in september 2009

I moved in with my (now) wife in April 2010 (12th)

My wife claimed tax credits in 2009-2010 and was awarded her award based on income. In April 2010 we started a joint claim together.

Somehow, the tax credits people now want a whopping £32,000 back off her as they are retrospecifvely applying my 2009-2010 income on our 2010-2011 joint claim to her 2009-2010 single persons claim (3 disabled people, plus childcare, plus working tax).

We have gone through disputes. We have rung and rung. We have done paperwork after paperwork.

All they seem interested in is the fact that some fool inputting data has put my 2009-2010 earnings into the joint claim. Even though her 2009-2010 claim was for a single and I did not live there, they now want the money back. its 'policy' apparently.

HELP!!

[shamen]

Re: tax credit overpayment? WTF

Gir im sick of this. investigated all the damn time. mistakes always being made.

does anyone know a really good solicitor who deal with this kind of thing?

[CleverClogs]

Re: tax credit overpayment? WTF

Why not contact your MP and get him/her to do some work for a change?

[shamen]

Re: tax credit overpayment? WTF

Ill give that a go. But he tends to just waffle, agree with you and then do sod all.

[Caspar]

Re: tax credit overpayment? WTF

Shamen,

Have a read of this:

If you think the overpayment is incorrect, or that HMRC has made a mistake TaxAid

[Celestine]

Re: tax credit overpayment? WTF

OMG Shamen, you poor thing, what a horrible needless mess.

I was entitled to Tax Credits a few years ago, but I decided not to claim them as I had heard of so many nightmares like this. Just didn't want to take the chance tbh.

On that link from Caspar above there is also a section describing your exact circumstances.

Overpayments because HMRC has cancelled your claim by treating you as part of a couple when you were making a claim as a single person (or by treating you as single when you were claiming as part of a couple) TaxAid

Can you categorically prove you were not living together? Are they trying to say they disbelieve you were living apart during the relevant period?

[Geneve]

Re: tax credit overpayment? WTF

This happened to me actually, I requested a face to face meeting with a tax advisor who saw the light so to speak. But it took that meeting!

[shamen]

Re: tax credit overpayment? WTF

Thanks for the links and feedback everyone. We think at this stage we have got them to see the light. There was a twofold problem, first being them applying the couple claim to the single claim and then them applying my 2010-2011 salary to the 2009-2010 period as well. Eventually the wife managed to get hold of a case investigator who seems to have sorted it out (for now). Im not holding my breath as we have had things 'sorted out' in the past, only for them to re-occur later and be told 'the investigator shouldn’t have done that' and everything go back to square one.

O
Can you categorically prove you were not living together? Are they trying to say they disbelieve you were living apart during the relevant period?

I can indeed prove that, I lived 5000 miles away At first, they acknowledged that I wasnt living there but said that as someone had input my salary the 'computer' had linked it and there was no way to undo it. Thankfully as I said above someone saw sense.

We probably will still have some overpayment for 2010-2011, how much we dont know yet but im sure they will get onto it. My wife is still fighting them on an overpayment they say happened in 2008 - her childcare costs were about £800 a month averaged over the year. They say in their documentation to average it over the year (because obviously childcare costs more in summer when schools are out). However what they actually do in practice is take the lowest monthly amount for any one month and say 'thats how much we will pay' (say its 500 in april, then 1000 in august, they use the £500 from april and say 'you are entitlted to 70% of £500 every month)

Even though their documentation says one thing, they do another and then make us pick up the slack of their problem. It seems even worse now there was a recent court case which said the beneficiary had to pay back HMRC for a mistake on the part of HMRC.

[Caspar]

Re: tax credit overpayment? WTF

Shamen,
Just to give you a bit of heart, I posted 3 months ago that I'd won an 8 year long battle on behalf of my wife with the DWP for IS overpayment (alleged fraud). We had a letter and a copy of the letter to my MP saying it wa all closed.

Last Saturday we got another letter saying they're collecting it again from her Carer's Allowance. I immediately wrote a very aggressive Letter Before Action. On Monday and Tuesday I played hell with them on the phone and they admitted liability; Yesterday we had a phone call from our MP saying they'd dropped it and they were waiting for it in writing; Today I had a letter saying they'd dropped it and a meeting was being arranged to sort out the out of court settlement.

They can be beaten, so keep fighting. Their wheels move very, very slowly, inter-departmental communication is virtually zero and case records are atrocious. No wonder the Civil Service can amke economy savings! I reckon you could do away with half the jobs and still improve efficiency. Don't lose heart, they do give eventually, but eventually can be a long time!