I have received a letter from HMRC today asking me to pay them back an overpayment of £638.
After DD2 was born in 2004 they messed up our tax credits award after we phoned them to inform them of her birth; they left my husband's salary off their calculations and overpaid us based on my salary alone.
We told them straight away and spent 18 months trying to pay them back. Lots of phone calls, they said they'd send us the paperwork etc and we never received anything. In the end we called and said if they didn't take it back within 2 weeks we'd spend it. They didn't, so we did!
They then decided they'd take it out of future years payments; fine. So we have hardly received any tax credits since then. Not a problem really.
HOWEVER husband and I separated last week so I phoned them to tell them of the change of circumstances and start a new claim. All very straightforward until now they want over six hundred quid from me. Which funnily enough I don't have sitting in the bank.
Grrrrr so now I need to call them on Monday, (can't call now as back to work in a minute) and will be on hold for hours as the TC deadline is Tuesday. I then need to negotiate a payment plan. I'm tempted to tell them I won't pay as it's their error in the first place.
All this stress on top of dealing with work, children, stress of finding out husband had been having an affair, trying to keep my head above water...
Thank god it's Friday! 