AIBU to be completely and utterly confused by tax credits

[NellysKnickers]

OK so we have received our awards notices for 13/14 & 14/15. We owe £2k from 13/14 despite telling them of any little change in wages and hours etc. But this is fine as according to them they can deduct it from future payments. Thing is, they say we already owe them £50 from this year BUT they are going to carry on paying £50 a month so we are not in financial hardship, leaving us just over 500 quid owing to them at the end of this year which they will then deduct from future payments too. So we will then owe 2500. I've tried to call twice, on hold for 20 min each time so have given up as 3 yr old getting twitchy.

Yanbu, tax credits 'people' are so helpful, but unfortunately are at the mercy of 'computer says no'

Infuriating! Hope you get it sorted!
They are open quite late in the evening I think, I've found the best time to call is 5/5.30, as a lot of people are travelling home or whatever so not pestering them!

YANBU.
We had exactly this happen to us last year. I called to get them to stop paying us now as we'd them end up in more financial hardship next year! Apparently they can't just stop my payments by me asking over the phone. I had to send a letter!

It's very unfair that it is so confusing now. When I first had working tax credits, it was really simple and straight forward. Everyone could work out exactly what they were entitled to and over payments were a rarity. You could see the maximum available award. Then for every £1 earned above the threshold, they reduced the award by around 50p. It worked really well, so they changed it and it has been a nightmare ever since.

Thanks all.

Yanbu and if you have informed them of every little detail in changes, I would appeal. This happened to my friend, she appealed and didn't have to pay the money back.

There has to be an easier way of doing tax credits. I can't for the life of me work them out.

I've had a letter saying we now owe them £1000.
I don't understand how this has happened as the 3 previous years I know I have given them the correct figures from my husbands wage. I rang them up to ask how I owe this but the woman I spoke to made no sense to me what so ever.
We are not entitled to tax credits this year so we're going to have to come up with the money.

Yanbu. We've also been told we were overpaid £1500 last year. Gutted as we were very careful to tell them exact figures and any changes at all. I can't understand it at all and it is going to leave us short this year. Really cross about it, we did everything by the book and now being penalised. It's a shit system.

Dh has spoken to them, I attempted again but didn'twas getting wasp so he took over! So we have got until ds2 is 16 to pay it back or should I say for them to deduct it from future paymentsalthough we aren't having any at the moment we may do in the future. We have also cancelled the 50 quid a month payments. So give them a call if they are saying you owe them, you too may have 13 years to pay it back.

Apologies for typos. Trying to do too much at once!

For those saying they have been overpaid but gave Tax Credits correct details updated in a timely manner you do have the right to appeal or dispute.

This may mean you do not have to pay back the overpayment. I am currently disputing a £3000 overpayment as I know I have given correct information within the required time period and I have Tax Credit's own paperwork to prove it [tons of the stuff, just why do they send the same information multiple times?].

Doesn't stop TC sending threatening letters or trying to fob me off by stating that 'we have reached an agreement' Like hell we have you bunch of incompetent tossers.

It's worth looking into. Apparently A LOT of people have this issue and why should you pay for a Tax Credit fuck up?

Look at this website - www.taxcc.org/

Thanks Nutcracker. It's tricky as Dh is self employed. I keep them up to date but twice they have cocked up and redone the wards with him earning 0 when I ring to advise a change of his earnings. The system needs a complete overhaul. It's ridiculous.

Awards not wards. Damn my fat fingers!

Nellys this has happened to us recently too! The telephone advisor deleted DHs earnings and my PAYE earnings when I rang to give them an estimate of my self employed earnings. I think what happened is the advisor asked me if there was anything else to report and I thought he meant changes and so I said "no"... and then got the shock of my life when I received the paperwork which stated our estimated earnings were something like £2000 in total [my SE earnings] and TC owed us £15,000 [but we still had £3000 overpayment ].

Also recently I rang to change my childcare costs. Assumed this was done until I received paperwork which stated TC still had my old childcare costs. Spent 30 minutes or so on hold to be told by advisor "Oh yes, I can see on the system that you have rung about this change a couple of weeks ago but for some reason it wasn't actioned... I have no idea why not..."

TC are the most incompetent, frustrating and incomprehensible government department I have ever had the misfortune to deal with.

Seriously, look at the above website. Lots of helpful information about navigating the system and they will also assist more personally if you contact them.

Don't let TC bamboozle you and get away with incompetence and ineptitude.

I was overpaid by £1800 last year

They overpaid me a few years ago. I changed my hours at work so told them what my wages were going to be. When my tax credit payments I phoned them 3 times to query the amount I was getting and was assured it was correct-I was paranoid after hearing of so many people being overpaid.

At the end of the tax year, after finding out I had been overpaid, I appealed. It turns out that just giving them my new yearly wage mid-year was not good enough. What I should have done (but didn't know to do) was to calculate how much in total I would have earned adding what I had earned for the part of the year on my old wage and then what I would earn with my new wage.

But they don't tell you this, they just ask what your new wage is.

When I appealed they sent me a letter saying that I should have known I was getting too much so it was my own fault. The fact that I was assured on several different occasions by their staff that it was correct was ignored.

Once again, even though I do the working out when letting them know of any changes, I have been overpaid by around £500 again. How? I can't wait for when DH is signed back on fit to work so that we can stop claiming them!!

We 'owe' them £5000 apparently, but were about 5 minutes too late to appeal in that 20 minute appealing window.... we have set up a repayment plan (not entitled to anything at all as £45 over the limit) but are appealing anyway, although it's called something else now. It seems we're not alone. it's bloody awful

The trouble with tax credits is that it goes by your earnings within the tax year, not month to month earnings. So if you report a change mid year, you may well still end up owing them money back despite telling them about it. Your income would have to go up significantly though for this to happen, as they allow up to £5000 more than expected before they change your award. Though I don't know anything about Working Tax Credits so it may be different.

If you tell them about an increase in income, you could still end up owing them money back as you have already received more than your entitlement for that year.