To think this is DISGRACEFUL! Massive tax credits overpayment!

[CrumblingKnees]

Just furious that common sense is not prevailing and I am essentially being robbed of money by HMRC!

So, twin DC finished education in summer 2021. Both have a disability, DH works but we were entitled to tax credits as wage not massive and we got the higher rate due to disability. I remember getting a letter saying tax credits would stop from August 31st due to this. Was aware and knew I’d have to find a job to cover the shortfall.

Payments stopped and I then started working in November 2021. I do remember getting some letters from them but ignored as as far as I was concerned claim had ended (stupid I know). Youngest was diagnosed with a serious illness last summer and I’ve been a bit of a mess, not keeping on top of things like I normally am.

Anyway got a letter from them a few weeks ago saying we’d been overpaid almost £2,000! Shocked, rang and basically they’d added on my work income from November onwards to my tax credit claim for that year (it was not closed). I assumed claim had ended in August and if it had been there would be no overpayment!

I’ve explained this and filed a dispute. They’ve come back today and said that as I didn’t dispute before the end of Jan the overpayment stands and we need to pay it!

AIBU to think this is a pisstake and totally wrong for a government agency to take money from families like this?

There is no statute of limitations on overpayments of benefits.
Shame their isn’t a back claim system, so that those entitled to benefits who were incorrectly told by benefits advisors they couldn’t claim anything to help them while they were struggling or sick, so we can claw back the support we should have received.

Go to your MP & get them involved in this one. DWP made the mistake not you & they do not get to ride shotgun & demand immediate payment of anything until they fully explain where they got that number from & why they didn’t close the claim…

What absolute rubbish. The DWP may make a lot of mistakes but this isn't one of them, as almost all PPs have explained. Anyway we're all wasting out online breath. Having not got the response she was looking for the OP isn't coming back.

I don't disagree at all. But that doesn't change the fact that the OP was overpaid as a result of their own errors, their failure to read the mail that definitely was sent to them, and owes the money back. And has been downright nasty to posters reasonably pointing out that they are wrong and they do owe the money. Claiming that one wrong makes another wrong right doesn't work.

It shouldn't be that hard to come to an arrangment to pay it back, and since the OP immediately discovered an ability to work after losing the benefits, they will hopefully be able to get some overtime to help with the payments.

Its an annual entitlement isnt it? So if your income for the year goes over the threshold you will be o/p

But you don't apply if it's a wtc exemption they are just sent automatically

It wouldn't have mattered how many letters she opened. OP would have been categorised as being overpaid regardless of the fact that she was entitled to the money at the time she received it. Because that's how tax credits work.

@Aganta
If she had understood that tax credits were a yearly assessment it would not of come as a shock to her that her wages for that year were taken into account.

I mean countless people have tried to explain it on this thread yet OP denies she was overpaid. So that, combined with her ignoring letters, suggests there does seem to be some deliberate ignorance on the part of OP

She wasn't overpaid at the time she received the money though. That's why it's a really horrible system to deal with.

She did what she was supposed to in that she kept her information with them up to date. So it wasn't an overpayment in the sense that she got too much money.

It still isn't really - she needed the money because her income was low. When she received it, I guarantee that it did not come with a letter saying 'we will claw this back off you if you start work before next April ' and without that information it doesn't matter a damn which letters you do or don't read.

Either why… she will get no where with any daft appeal. She WILL have to pay it back, which is a good thing.

Yes. It is shocking. The government is horrific to families - not least the policy of only laying tax credits for two children since 2017 - I have five kids and three of them born since April 2017 and we get no tax credits for them at all. My sister with older kids gets tc for all four. It’s crazy.

You chose to have five children, why should anyone else pay for them?

I am sure the HMRC teams are recruited on the basis of lacking empathy or pragmatism.

HMRC are being very pragmatic about money owed. (It's always a good idea to know what a word means before using it.)

That's a good question.

Which you knew, before having them though?

DWP need to take more accountability for the impact this has on mental health. I work, have always worked FT, so did ex-dp. We claimed for childcare as we had two under two (twins) and were both in minimum wage jobs. We weren't entitled as soon as they got their free hours.
Last year (they are both 6) we had a letter saying that we had been overpaid in the year 2018 and we needed to repay the full amount (1200) in a months time. No explanation. My ex was in the house on his own and has MH issues, he thought they were going to repossess the house. He actually self harmed because he was in such a bad place and the letter just sent him into a spiral of anxiety.
I had been making repayments all of that time out of my salary and there was no mention of that in the letter. No mention of a repayment plan at all. When I raised it with them via my local MP they took no responsibility for how the letters were worded, no accountability fir not putting any context on the letters, nothing! This is despite there being numerous news stories of people committing suicide after receiving debt letters and that this letter was sent to him and not me, who received the payments and was also the one paying the repayments.

@thismamayogi
Well yes the government woke up to the fact the number of children you have is a lifestyle choice ( multiple births exempted) and you choose to have them you pay for them

So since 2017 you’ve had three further children.

You knew the policy. And went on to have a further 3 children 🤷‍♀️ .

@CrumblingKnees
So only those who are affluent should be “allowed” to have lots of kids? Or a Chinese style ban on more than one/two is to be welcomed? This is dangerous ground. You have to follow that through.
if full time mothers were not penalised for making a choice to raise their own kids full time, perhaps the poverty of the same wouldn’t be an issue.

Actually I was already pregnant with number three when the loo T was brought in. We then made the shocking decision not to let the government decide how many kids we wanted.

policy

Too right

So you shouldn’t be “horrified” by the government implementing parameters around benefits

Why is it crazy? You knew before having the last 3

Yes…let’s encourage a system where people have more and more children that they can’t afford and expect those who have made a conscious decision to limit their family because of what they can afford pay for them instead. Great idea!

All mums are full time mums. I’m not no longer a mum when I’m at work.

People just like to say ‘full time mum’ because it sounds better than ‘unemployed’