To wish I'd never claimed tax credits

[StillCantDecideOnaUsername]

I only started claiming a few years ago when my income dropped as I was on maternity leave. I am now paying back one overpayment of 3k at £200 a month and currently disputing another overpayment of 6k. The amount of financial and emotional stress the situation is causing makes me wish I never claimed in the first place and tried to manage without. I have done a lot of research on TC overpayments and it seems that it is so common, surely this just goes to show that the system is not working!!!

To anyone who reads this thread and is having trouble with Tax Credits, they may find this helpful:
revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-to-deal-with-hmrc/disputes/

It explains the difference between disputes and appeals and how, if you have met your obligations providing complete information and reporting changes, then there sometimes is the opportunity to overturn the original over-payment decision.

I've recently received an overpayment invoice for around £3500. My tax credits rose due to my DH being ill and unable to work for a year (self employed). They didn't rise the year he was unwell- we got nothing and I was only earning £15000- it only kicked in the next tax year. I informed them that he was back at work the following year and gave expected income figures (I actually intentionally over estimated!). My tax credits continued and I thought as I had disclosed everything we were playing catch up! No- big bill arrives! I spoke to a lovely lady at HMRC, and told her whilst I didn't dispute I may owe this money, how can this happen when they have been informed of changes etc?! They agreed £20 per month for 10ish years. I can afford more but seems unfair that I'm in debt for the first time ever and it's not my fault!

Yes, currently paying back £50 a month after they decided to restart them because I was awarded PIP! I never wanted them! They've told me I have £170 due this time next year to them!

its all very worrying. honest people keeping them up to date, telling them everything and then being landed with crippling bills.

I've been in this boat too, although nothing to the tune of the amount you're having to pay back, it was more like £300 it turned out I owed.

I claimed in August 2009 when I had my son, I was on ML, DH had FT job, handed in all paperwork when asked, got awarded £25 per week. April 2010, renewed claim, provided paperwork and bang, letter saying I owed them £300. I've never paid a penny of what they're claiming I owed and I've never heard anything else regarding it, 7 years down the line. I keep getting paperwork asking me to renew, but haven't bothered in the last 7 years as it's more hassle than it's worth. :/

Same boat here. Just finished paying off £1800 at £54 a month. Now they say I've been overpaid again by nearly £800 and debt collectors are ringing me at work.

I give them accurate information, on time, they make payments and you assume they're correct and then the envelope lands on the mat saying nope, we've overpaid you.

The reason for the overpayments is that they base your award on last year's income. But then if your earnings raise more than £2500 in the current year they'll adjust your award, but not usually until the following year, hence the overpayments. It is a mess of a system, and even HMRC struggle with the rules because it is so overly complicated.

It could (will) be worse though, Universal Credits is brutal. The theory is that it is based on real time information, but it's never as simple as that. Most people will get a lower award from the outset, there are significant payment delays (six weeks+) and your money can be stopped with no notice.

How they can turn a bad system into something even worse beggars belief!

So I was part of the first group to claim tax credits and was religious about calling to aside of changes ( despite 45-1hr wait each time ) we claimed for 9 years and each time checked the details.
Every other year we would have our award stopped or reduced as they said they had overpaid which resulted in serious financial hardship and loss of our home ! You wouldn't claim if you didn't rely on the money
We stopped claiming 5 years ago and last year they sent a letter to say we owe £675 from overpayments in 2006-2009 ?
I appealed and was told I couldn't have the details as you can only appeal within 30 days of the original claim ??
I'm currently ignoring them as I paid a solicitor to request details and sent them all my paperwork from phone bills to award paperwork ( luckily I'm a hoarder of paper) and haven't heard since
I think it's a terrible scam as every time I called they didn't know whether I declared my net or gross pay and couldn't work out childminder costs changing over holidays !

Tax credits don't have a clue.
They managed to pay us (yes that is correct pay us) coz they had underpaid us. Yet on EXACTLY the same form they are taking x amount off us this year to pay back the overpayment!!!!
I dread what next year's will say.

Another one here.

Same story - year on year we've told them our details as and when requested and year on year they've switched between saying we've been over paid and then under paid - reams of bloody paper all saying the same thing - very little - until i didn't know if we were coming or going tbh! :(

This year DHs earnings have risen to the point of us being entitled to no TCs and suddenly we're asked to pay off an over payment of £1200. When was that given to us then? We've been only been awarded a few quid a month for the last few years

We're paying them £50 a month to get rid of it as quick as we can. Great scheme. We're now worse off than when we qualified for benefits!

They're a disaster.

I switched childcare providers and reduced childcare costs once DS started school, somehow from that they're adamant for the portion of the year I was paying the higher childcare costs I actually had no qualifying childcare. 2 years later I switched childcare/increased costs again, but they decided I'd told them I had no childcare but didn't change my award, and it wasn't until my renewal came that I noticed and they wouldn't backdate it. So, I'm currently paying back around £2000 that I was actually entitled to.

The problem with tax credits is that they're based on estimated income. All awards are provisional until after the review, which doesn't take place until you're into the next tax year.

If you increase your hours, get a promotion or a pay rise, you'll end up with an overpayment. You can tell them about the change, but unless it's significant (I think more than £2,000), they won't reassess.

It's one of the few things that will be better under Universal Credit. That will be based on actual earnings for people on PAYE, using the info uploaded to HMRC every time you get paid. So (in theory) you should never be over- or underpaid for more than a month.

I actually don't know anyone, family, friend or colleague, who has a positive word to say about tax credits. How do they get away with it?

Hate them with a passion. Cannot wait until we are not reliant.

They overpaid us by £7000. Again, I'd kept them up to date etc. I know ONLY deal with them on their online virtual chat thing. That way, EVERYTHING I say to them is written down and can be used as evidence that I have 100% given them the right information.

I repeatedly ask too on the chat, Are you sure you are not going to overpay me? I would rather be underpaid and have you owe me. Can you reassure me that we won't be facing a penalty again etc etc etc.

As it stands right now, i need to redo mine next week once my new nursery bill comes in. So will do it online.

i had an overpayment of £1100 and disputed it and got nowhere went without from january to april then started getting payments and got very little but got offered a job in june so had to do a change of circumstances got told i would get help with childcare then told that was wrong information and i need to do minimum 14 hours work so had to go back to employer who said i prob will be working that anyway and then went back to tax credits who decided they will pay £29 to my childcare as they will take 50% of childcare element as well as 50% off child tax credits (£29 doesnt even cover 1 full day childcare) spoke to a lovely man at tax credits who told me to dispute it again which i did and i explained that it was going to put me in a position that working will be pointless as leaves me with £68 a month to live off as well as cover bills rent food etc. i won my appeal to pay lower amounts back every week. i only had an overpayment due to someone not filling in my renewal properly as i do mine over the phone! but speak to them on the phone as well as filling in the online form to see if you can lower the repayments back to them

Same situation here too. Paying back 5k,due to shift work. Always updated hours, but on a zero hour ,minimum wage job I've been left scratching my head how it happened. It's the only debt I've ever had. I watch every penny and have even cut my own hair for the last sodding 12 years! It's very frustrating

I know several people this has happened, none of them claim Tax credits now because the amount of hassle they had to go through.

One person was told she was underpaid so she got some money backdated then a year later she was told that it was a mistake and she had to pay back the backdated pay plus the extra money she received since then.

It's a mess.

I got a letter the other day saying I owe them £1500 which they will take out of future payments and on the same letter it said i was no longer entitled to anything as our income is now too high. I rang them and asked how I was entitled to it from April when I submitted everything and now I'm not even though nothing has changed and I was told that despite giving out exact income they had calculated our entitlement based on a lower income to make sure we weren't under paid. I'd rather be underpaid than now owe them money I don't bloody have. the system is a joke.

£2500 in the current year they'll adjust your award, but not usually until the following year, hence the overpayments

so I guess as soon as you have change in circs, tell them, then bank the over payments - or payments.

im now worried as I have said to them over and over are you sure our payments are ok when dh had a small pay rise , they said yes - i even asked if the call was recored....

now i am worried.

I got sucked into over payments even though I've always updated them. Was 'thrilled' to learn that just as I started maternity leave I was being demanded to repay £2k asap. The most leniency they gave was spreading over 3 yrs. Then when they worked out my new tax credits they decided to give me £8k over the yr because even though I told them my return to work figures they decided to use my maternity salary with my full childcare bill so it looks like I'm living on thin air. I will no doubt be given a massive overpayment request in the future! Grr. (Am saving chunks of my current payments in anticipation!) Despite them saying their new calculations show I've repaid enough and they owe me loads, they continue to deduct the overpayment direct debit every mth too. It's so ridiculous and I can never get through to ask them to cancel.

I was on a thread which gave the calculations on how they work it out...hold on will have a look then post it

They're a nightmare - we recently had a letter to say we were overpaid a couple of years ago. How can we even know if that was the case, their paperwork never really explains how it is worked out. Anyway, paying that back at £10 a month forever.

Then several weeks later we have multiple letters on the same day saying we owe them and they owe us various amounts

Eventually a random amount of money is deposited in my account. Then another letter saying we will get nothing this year.

They have all our details correct. I did our renewal and then followed up by phone. So who knows.

I spent 5 years paying off an overpayment. They wouldnt even provide evidence of how we were overpaid, I just had to pay it. Still tried to chase me for my exes half even though we had been split for like 2 years when they came for their overpayment.

It's why I wont do too much overtime at work because I'm not dealing with that shit again.

Myself and my dp were claiming wtc. Apparently we were overpaid £700. My dp agreed to pay £20 a month via their debt collection, as we were disputing the overpayment. Fine. I gave birth in April to our first baby and we applied for CTC, as I am on SMP. We received various award notices through the post, which as everyone here will know, barely make sense, and then find out they have deducted the overpayment from our CTC leaving me getting a £2 a week payment. I'm furious as we already had a payment agreement set up, we're disputing it and it's leaving us short of money. Plus the fact they are taking it off money meant for our baby really makes me mad. Stupid bloody system. They haven't got a clue what they are doing.