How do you think WTC would take a letter from ME asking for a repayment?!!

[MarianneFaithless]

I've just learnt on here that being left an inheritance should not necessarily have affected my WTC. This was in 2004. I inherited £12,000 from my mum. I declared it to HMRC,very clearly and several times , by phone and by letter; but they classed it as income,and we received no WTC for 12 months. We were (and still are) on a very low income, so this put us into real hardship, the inheritance quickly went on household & food.

I often wondered if they had got it right, and reading on here of all the familys who are being asked to repay overpayments from years back, I just wondered how they would take it if it was the other way around.

Also thought it could be quite funny to send them a very long and complicated letter and calculations, like the ones we get, saying they owed me money, and they could repay me in monthly installments of £X.00 !!
(Don't really hold out out much hope, by the way!)

I think it would go into the black hole where various letters of mine went disputing an "overpayment" which was in fact a computer error on their part (1 child plus 1 new child = 0 children according to their computer).

That sounds really tough with the inheritance though - you don't pay income tax on inheritance so I wouldn't have thought it should count for WTC. They can pay you back if they've underpaid, but I suspect it's too late now for an error in 2004 :(

Savings used to count in tax credit world. It's now interest made.

I'm not sure when it changed so you could be pre the change ?

"The Tax Credit Office can't accept an appeal dated 13 months or more after they sent their decision. If they can't accept your late appeal, they will pass your request to an independent tribunal to decide."

The HMRC website would suggest that something in 2004 is well beyond the deadline.

Do it!!!! What have you got to lose? Send a letter - recorded or signed for and see what happens??

I very recently got ripped off by a company who misold me something (they told me I won something, it turned out to be a subscription but there were no t&c's). When they requested payment I tried to send back but could not get a reponse, you know the usual story. I ended up getting bailiff letters from them so wrote to them with a strongly worded complaint and copied to trading standards. I also enclosed an invoice to them charging them for my time, cost of various postage, cost of phone calls etc, it totalled to £164!! The initial subscription was only £8. I ended up being told I could keep the books and I got an apology, although acknowledgement of my invoice. I had such a big feeling of satisaction after everything they put us through.

You should write and at the very least you might get a letter admitting they were wrong. They've screwed you out of your inheritance and they 'should' be accountable for that!

If the OP declared their inheritance (wrongly) as 'income' then they've only screwed themselves.

Thanks for replies,all.
cogito I did tell them several times, by letter, and by phone, that it was an inheritance, cos I was so concerned that they knew my circumstances correctly.
But I won't be challenging it, it is too long ago, and would be far too stressful, and I wouldn't get anywhere.
I'm reconciled now.
Does make me think how complicated and quite scary the whole tax machine is, always makes me feel I'm doing something wrong, when in fact the reverse is true -- I have spent all my adult life being very honest (and very poor!) and for sure, I'll never be a rich woman.
Never mind.

There is a difference between being honest and shooting yourself in the foot. When it comes to dealing with HMRC and other authorities, only answer the specific questions you are asked. Don't volunteer additional information if you are not required to give it. i.e. don't mention cash gifts when asked about taxable income. They are not interested and the additional information often ends up being misinterpreted. Keep it simple, answer the question truthfully but briefly. Then the whole 'tax machine' becomes surprisingly easy to manage.