AIBU to think tax credits are supposed to help people?

[MrsLianeB]

Going back to April 2012 I was a student and DH was working for a temping agency. We applied for tax credits and was given a weekly amount to top up our income which was a huge help. Fast forward to August 2012 my DH was offered a permanent position with an increased wage.
We informed tax credits and our weekly amount decreased, then in December after I completed my studies I received a job offer which I accepted and again informed tax credits. The money we received from them stopped, as expected, as we were both now earning.

....Then today we received letters from tax credits saying we now owe them £2600! This is based on the fact that our estimated income for 2012/13 was less than our actual income (no shit as I went from unemployed to employed!) As I can't afford to pay this money back it will now take me 10 years at £20 a month unless I somehow win the lottery!

So for 9 months money to help us I'm now going to have a 10 year debt, and all for bettering myself and getting a job!!!!
This system seems utterly ridiculous!

I think low-income people should be taxed less rather than this crap.

Hello OP, if you have a record of when you called them and you told them of all the changes of income, then it is their fault, not yours.
Do you no longer receive tcs because of income?
I would call them and ask for an explanation as this doesn't seem right.

This is why I'm not applying for tax credits, even though we're probably eligible for a small amount this year. It's just not worth the risk that we'll get something wrong and have to pay it back another year.

It doesn't seem to matter what you do, there's no guarantee that it won't go wrong. Dh's wage has a large commission/bonus element so we can never really be sure what he'll earn from month to month.

First of all I would check they have calculated it right.

If they have, sorry, YABU as you got an extra £2,600 above what others in your situation were managing on.