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!!!

I am a bit worried reading all these posts. Our payments went up this year quite a bit. We have given then correct figures for last year and they have increased dh pay for this year yet we are being paid more this year than last year.

It's no wonder a lot of people don't even claim it. It's so complicated. If they really wanted to do it they'd do it automatically as part of the PAYE system but no.

The issue is

Year 1 estimated pay - no flexibility for MP pay rises etc

Year 2 - actual reflection on year 1
AND estimated payments on year 2

There doesn't seem to be a split between the 2 so you may have a

Minus for year 1 and a + for year 2

Then there's the stream of letter which dont make sense and everyone be ends up confused

I agree that the system is shit.

I am a freelancer so some weeks no work at all, some weeks 60 hours. Some weeks hours and hours trying to sell work or doing accounts or marketing but no income.The only way it could work was if I submitted an estimate of annual earnings and then also my tax return with final actual figures.

I would still get three letters within the same week with three different sets of calculations on and I too am currently paying back - and it is hard as DC just gone to uni so entitled to even less this year - (but costs of living don't go down with 1 rather than 2 kids at home full time)

It is a pernicious system. Some people play it and others suffer from it. Horrible.

My only advice to anyone who is worried is: IF there's any way you can squirel a bit of your award away every month then do that. Then if/when they suddenly demand a repayment you can give them at least a portion of what you owe, if not all of it if you're lucky.

Mind you even as i type the above i'm picturing the scenario where they say OH you've got savings now so you don't qualify ....

Arrrrrgggghhhh!

It's bloody ridiculous. How is it right that the above even needs thinking about?!

I think if the over payment is not down to any mistake of your own (ie you've given your income figures each year in good faith, like we all have here) then they should not be able to claim a penny back!

Yesterday I received a letter saying I had been overplayed by........wait for it.....£4600 I called them up and cried down the phone, this is the 2nd time they have said I owe them despite me giving the correct details to them. After being told that I had to pay it several times the man on the phone eventually realised that there have been a mistake on their system. I now have to fill forms out and prove their mistake.

Photocopy every single form before you send it!
HB had the biggest problem with me having one employment and one self employment - 'audited accounts' had to be submitted to them but as I earned about £300 from self employment, and they were trying to work out my benefit on my gross earning not my profit it was all a complete mess. They really did not have a clue how to handle two separate (but tiny) income streams. Which makes you wonder just how well trained the people are who handle these things!

Me too! £3k owed, apparently. Demanded a few months before I retired. Utterly incompetent.

Zaph I have had huge problems with HB since being self employed, they underplayed me due to messing up my gross income with my profit, took me months to prove they were wrong and finally get them to cough up the £1500 they owed me. And people think it's easy to claim benefits? It isn't at all, they seem to do all they can to get out of paying what your entitled too.

OMG, I am so glad it's not just me! Well, actually it's kind of sad, but I have felt so ashamed and useless because I was overpaid, I kept thinking that it was my fault, although I knew I had always given them the correct figures, but every letter I got from them was so confusing.

When the over payment letters first started coming, I was so shocked and scared. When I rang them to arrange a payment plan, the lady I spoke to was so nasty she made me cry. I have paid £100 per month for 3 years now, and then last year I got another demand that was promptly followed up by letters from a debt collector acting for them who were very difficult to deal with and would only communicate via phone, and all of a sudden they stopped contacting me. then I get a letter saying that I was in arrears with my payment plan, so I rang them up and they could see that it was a mistake. But would I like to discuss payment of the second demand? Yes, can I pay another £20 per month? No problem, all sorted. Sometimes you are very lucky to speak to someone nice who accepts your offer. it's such a weight off my shoulders as I am pretty certain there will be no more demands as I haven't qualified for 4 years now.

But does anyone know how to stop the renewal letters coming every year when you no longer qualify? I don't actually fill out the renewal claims anymore, as I am so worried about doing it wrong. The info on them is not totally correct, but as the info they claim to have means that I no longer qualify, I have not bothered.

I was overpaid too by quite a large amount, dp paid it with some savings (that we could never replace). They were very very unhelpful on the phone when I tried to sort it. The only nice people were the ones that took payment. Don't get anything from them now and wouldn't claim if I could. not worth the hassle.

We are also going through this. We have 2 over payments from different years. They couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me how they work out tax credits so there is no way of checking if what they say is true.

Every time we had a change to make I phoned them up, sometimes I had to phone them for the same thing more than once like when DD started school but they had her still recorded as in childcare for 2 years despite me phoning when ever a letter came through. Frustratingly every time I called our tax credits appeared to be recalculated as the amounts we were paid changed so it looked like they had made the changes.

I am an accountant and I still don't understand tax credits.

This happened to us too. We have now finished paying back the £3000 odd in overpayments and refuse to have anything to do with tax credits again.

I got to page 3, so apologies if this has been mentioned.

I used to work for hmrc in their debt management telephone centre. I was the person you phoned to talk about an overpayment of tax credits, unpaid self assessment and paye etc.

Those people have no idea how your overpayment came about, we don't get told. We can see where it came from, i.e the award year, but no more. The tax credits helpline and powers who be do not pass that information on. Please don't be angry at them, we know it's a shit situation and we know we cannot explain why and you've been passed from pillar to post. Many a time I was upset after a call because things are so awful for some people and I felt powerless to help, bar pass on another nunber and note down what you told me. At the end of the day, the people answering the phone are just doing a job.

I will tell you though that you can request a payment plan and it does not need to be 2 years etc. You can dispute it. If the payment arose from a joint claim and you separate then you are only liable for half and if you pay your half off and they still contact you, go as high as you can as it is not your responsibility- joint claim means joint liability.

I claimed tax credits and ended up with two overpayments. One I paid half of and was caused by me moving in with a partner: I stopped working, our household income dropped and we went from 1 child to 2 children in the house. Yet somehow they overpaid that.
The second time I was a single parent, I began employment and told them asap. My overpayment was more than my months payment.

I paid both by a payment plan at £50 a month. Don't let them tell you it isn't possible, and don't let them bully you in to an anount you cannot afford. Request an income and expenditure (it can be done over the phone). Advisors cannot take more than you can reasonably afford.

I'm done with tax credits forever due to the hassle.

sail the man I spoke to yesterday was really helpful, to begin with he told me there was nothing he could do. My overpayments were due to dp (who has since moved out) undercalculating his income so basically we were claiming WT when we shouldn't have been. I was very upset as dp moved out in December due to DV and I thought I had been left with a huge debt (£4600) because he had messed up his calculations. So I'm sobbing on the phone to this poor man trying to work out how a single mum of 2 disabled children is going to pay back this huge amount of money, he then looked closer and realised that my ex dp's self employed income from the year before had been added to the claim due to a error in the system so I don't owe anything. I'm still petrified because I have to fill out a despite form to prove the error.

To everyone that received letters saying you owe money, do question it, ask for them to explain how they got their figures, from my expereance yesterday the people on the phones do have access to numbers and figures you just might have to cry a lot to get them to look .Sadly I don't have a choose but to claim due to being a single parent and having 2 dc's on higher rate DLA, I rely on CTC to live, I just wish the system was made easier. I wonder how many people have been made to pay back money they didn't owe.

I had similar, but not the kind of amounts you lot had!! I paid £67 for a year. They sent it to debt collection, claiming I hadn't contacted them.
Months later, after many phone calls and letters, When I insisted on seeing all my file, they finally admitted I had contacted them. 3 times. But apparently, 3 x 20 minute phone calls, almost begging and pleading, I hadn't used the right words, so I hadn't asked for what I was supposed to.

I complained. Got nowhere. I wish I'd never had anything to do with them.

Well last year they managed to underpay me and overpay me at the same time. Judging by my renewal statement it will be the same again this year. I give up.
This is without the overpayments I've had in the past when I wanted them to stop the joint claim because I had split up with my ex. The payments went into his bank account which I had no access to even before we split up and he continued to be paid WTC for around 6 months before they bothered to actually stop the claim. Then of course I ended up having to pay half of that overpayment back despite never having access to the money in the first place. Still bitter about that and it was over six years ago!

with us - they seem to already have dh work details, so they tell us what he earns I never knew how they did this. They just confirm to me.

Yup - ended up oweing about 3k all paid off now.

It was effectively an interest fee loan !

Similar situation. Got told we had been overpaid by £5000 and couldn't appeal it. Bit did go to an appeal to be able to appeal if that makes sense. It was a horrible horrible experience with the tax credit representative making me out to be a liar. Really distressing. The judge allowed us to appeal after that but then two years on , admitted they were wrong and we owed nothing. An awful experience to have to go through

Jessesgirl that was exactly same as me and an ex a few years ago. They paid him £1000 2 weeks after I threw him out for dv.
Despite me ringing tax credits the day I threw him out. I'm their reply to my complaint they admitted they paid him AFTER we split. Wtf why do I owe them half of that then?
I argued with them back and forth (including complaint letters they never received ) until a debt collection agency got involved then I just paid coz it was easier than to fight.

@misscph1973

But does anyone know how to stop the renewal letters coming every year when you no longer qualify? I don't actually fill out the renewal claims anymore, as I am so worried about doing it wrong. The info on them is not totally correct, but as the info they claim to have means that I no longer qualify, I have not bothered.

Ring 0345 300 3900. Tell them you want to close your claim, as you don't want to ever claim again because it has caused you more trouble than it's worth. That's what we did. Ask them to let you know in writing that your claim has been closed too.

Reading some of the messages on here, I feel quite glad that our overpayment was only 3 figures!

God, this thread is horrifying. We have been notified of an overpayment of £1600, but they haven't asked for it yet. I've been trying to look at it like shoulda said - as an interest free loan. It's a totally messed up system - how they think people can go from needing financial support to having spare money overnight is beyond me.

@Summercat, thank you! I am stil very worried about contacting them, it might rock the boat, I am worried that they will demand the full amount back in one go. I will have to work up the courage!

@Areyoufree, same here, I also try to remember that it really helped me at a time where I had very little, that I am fortunate to be in position where I can pay it off (although slowly) and that it's interest free. But it's still very traumatic to receive those brown envelopes with figures that are so often wrong and always very confusing.

Same situation.
Ex was receiving child tax. He did not tell me anything. I claimed. When I asked them to check if DP was receiving child tax they told me they could not because it was confidential. I am accused of fraudulently claiming. I now have 6k to pay back.
It is all a big farce and I wonder why the fuckwits who did the mistakes were not sacked. I sometimes wonder if it has not been fully engineered. It cause me so much anxiety, thoughts of ending it all, being close to be homeless. I have worked out a low repayment for 5 years. At the end of it the full amount left is due. God knows how I will be able to do this.
I think the current system is a liability and causing so much upset to so many. Arrg