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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

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Original poster

Quick! Help! Tax Credits Demanding Money!!!

19 replies

chel86 · 17/12/2007 10:01

I am fuming! Tax credits have sent me a letter today telling me I need to pay them back £2000!!!

All the information I have ever given them has been correct to the penny and now they say they've overpaid me and I need to pay them back!

Where do I stand here? It's their fault!

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LOONEYplayingachristmasTUNEy · 17/12/2007 10:09

Have you asked this in the legal section? They did this to me too, I hate them and rather get no money from them to be on the safe side!!! If they do have a right to get it back, I believe they can only stop any more payments and claw it back that way,, they did with me anyway as no way could I pay them!

nannyL · 17/12/2007 10:48

do tax cedits EVER get it right?

only ever hear about people who are faced with huge bills through no fault of their own

one of my best friends supposidly owed them oevr £1000 (she was a single not working mum with a baby)

they ended up writing to her saying they had written off and she didnt have to pay it back... (they actually sent the same letter 3 times!)

caused so much stress though asking her for money that she didnt have

ayla99 · 17/12/2007 11:58

Ring them & ask them to check how they arrived at this amount. We had a bill (not as much as yours) and it turned out they were missing a form we were supposed to have returned. without that form confirming the details they had were correct they assume we are no longer entitled to the benefit and automatically cancel the payments. And as there were no payments to clawback from, we got a bill.

Which we no longer have to pay but am still waiting several weeks later for written confirmation of that and still haven't received any payments they said they would reinstate.

snowfunwhenyoureknackered · 17/12/2007 12:02

I'm paying them back thru no fault of my own, I told them money I was receivng wasn't ours, they insisted it was, then a year later are taking it back (£1400)

very unfair system, I got good advice from CAB, but even their letters to the TC people didn't help me

so unfair

Original poster

chel86 · 17/12/2007 14:48

I've called them and they insist it's correct and are sending me a written break down. Apparently this is an over payment from 2005/2006!! So why didn't they reduce my payments for last year?? They really have caused me so much stress. When my earnings have gone down to only £300 a month they don't want to know and haven't increased by a penny, but instead want me to foot their error at over £2k!!!

I'll wait for this break down, but from what I've read here and on other sites it looks like I will have to pay them back

They'll have to do it on my terms though and I haven't got anything to give at the moment!

OP posts:

Nemostwonderfultimeoftheyear · 17/12/2007 14:54

Did the same to us in 2005..said we were overpaid by £1500 despite me always telling them of changes. Anyway they stopped payments from the august to april[dd1 was born in the dec] and then in next year they took a percentage of payments and have done the same this year. Apparently next year we pay off the last £300. However we had an IVA put on place which took into account the tax credits debt and have now been paying them twice but they refuse to stop taking money from us..idiots is all I can say

Mawma · 17/12/2007 14:59

thay done this to me also, and i had always told them about changes etc eventually i appealed it by phoning and sending a written letter and most of it got written off as it was their fault, but i still pay £9 back per week, they overpaid £1500 at the end of the tax year straight into my account I thought i had won the lottery the feeling was great but i phoned them straight away and they couldn't take the money back from my account so i transferred it into a high interest account and it helped pay for my wedding and as i said i pay back £9 a week interest free

mrspnut · 17/12/2007 15:01

this might help explain what to do next.

pol26 · 17/12/2007 15:29

Well, GRRRR Just writing my third letter to them this year. They say we owe... wait for it... £11,000!!! YES you did read it right. Way back from when DD was born in 2004.

Despite our awards changing weekly (or so it feels) and having nothing, having something, having nothing etc... AND telling them it's me that has stopped work NOT OH three times in letters and TWICE on the phone... they STILL can't get it right.

They can go jump if they think i'm paying back money for THEIR error!

rudolphdoesntneedbratnav · 17/12/2007 15:37

I'm in the same situation, I have just received a notice from TC office saying that they gave me too much money for 2005/2006 to the tune of £7.5k.

I have only ever given them the correct information, I would never accept benefit/any other money that I wasn't entitled to, I told them about any changes, so I can't see why I, or anyone else in my position should have to pay back money they gave out in error [grr]

pol26 · 17/12/2007 15:53

My question is What do I do? I have wrote and replied to them. I have stated when I told them about changes in our circumstances and they said THEY overpaid us and even if I did tell them the change in circumstances I should've known I had been overpaid!!!
I am writing to them again with some hope that they will listen this time esp. after actually phoning them on the 16th of Nov twice and telling them that OH was working and I wasn't, after 3 letters!!! And one went to their complaints dept...!

So if now they come back and say the same '... we realise you have been overpaid by us but you still have to pay it back...' or what ever schmuck they write, what do I do then??? I don't agree with it. It's been their mistake but how do I actually PROVE it??

mrspnut · 17/12/2007 16:46

The best thing to do is go and seek advice from a welfare rights organisation or CAB.

The other thing you could do is get your local MP involved - many run a local surgery that you can make an appointment at. This works really well in the run up to election time funnily enough.

Joash · 17/12/2007 17:03

You can't do anything. You are supposed to know that they are giving you too much money. Although how on earth they expect people to know this when they are told that they are overpaying, and they still insist the payments are right.
If you try to insist that it's their mistake then then get stroppy and it is classed as a fraudulent claim regardless of the claimant keeping them up to date on changes of circumstances.

Original poster

chel86 · 18/12/2007 15:53

OMG Rudolph & Pol26!! My £2k looks rather petty compared to yours! How do they get this so wrong when we give them all the information they supposedly need??? They're obviously not hitting their targets (they must have targets for something) and are trying to make it up other ways, IMO.

I'm just going to give up I think. They can take their measley £40 a month and I'll have nothing more to do with them. It's just not worth the hassle they give as and when they choose.

OP posts:

Sidge · 18/12/2007 16:16

We had a situation back in 2004 when they overpaid us despite us giving them all the correct information.

You need to fill in a particular form which states that you gave them all the correct info and that the error is theirs not yours. (Can't remember what it's called, I phoned them and stated I needed to make an official complaint and they sent me the paperwork.)

If they can see that it's not your fault then they can't ask for the money back. We had £2000 written off.

SofiaAmes · 18/12/2007 16:21

Did the same thing to me...except it was 3000. I didn't owe them the money as I had done exactly what they had instructed me to do. I just kept calling and writing and getting angrier and angrier. They did eventually write off the amount. It's important to point out to them that if the money was overpaid, (and you should continue to maintain that it was not), it was done so because of their mistake. Their mandate is to write off overpayments that occurred as a result of their mistakes and not fraudulent claims by the receiver.

Joash · 21/12/2007 15:35

But you have to prove that you did not know that you were being overpaid - they will not simply accept that you called and gave them the correct information even if you can prove it. If they have overpaid you - you are supposed to know that you are receiving too much money

LOONEYplayingachristmasTUNEy · 21/12/2007 16:03

My sister did phone up loads of times once to say "hey, pretty sure you're over paying me" and they kept INSISTING they weren't and she WAS entitled to it so of course one day she used it as had called several times. Then one day they told her they had in fact overpaid her and she was in totally different position financially and didn't have any money to pay them!!

shoshaliteupthetree · 21/12/2007 16:11

Is there a email for Tax credits, I would advise anyone in future (if there is) to do everything by email, you then would have proof.

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