WTF???? WF Tax credit to be paid back!

[Ormiriathomimus]

Got letter from HMRC. Apparently I owe 485 overpayment. Considering we haven't received any money from them in nearly 4 years I am not sure why it has taken them so long to ask for it. The letter stated that we will already have had a request for payment - err no, we didn't. I think I'd remember if I had to pay nearly £500. I got rid of all the documentation when we moved house - yes, stupid I guess but we hadn't received any for 18m at that time.

Have I got any recourse? I simply don't have it atm. And it seems utterly unreasonable to simply demand the money with no explanation.

thanks

Poor you, they are sods for doing that aren't they, I know a few people that have been stung like that, i don't have any practical advice on fighting it I'm afraid but I do know that they can't ask for it all in one go and you can pay them back a bit every month for several years!! Good luck!

No advice sorry, but watching with interest as I've had a letter saying I owe them £700 for overpayments. I've ignored it so far.

Thanks

I checked on the website and we could possibly pay it back over 12 m but we are struggling to get our finances in order as it is and £40 a month will be a struggle,

Ouch at £700!

I recieve TC and I live in fear that they will do this to me even those I'm so careful with the income figures I give them, they seem to have massive powers on being able to go back several years and demand it back i really feel for anyone who's been a victim of this

I got a letter saying I owe £360 from 2009-10 so I set up a payment plan at ten pound a month until 2015.

I got a letter saying I owed £1800

after picking myself up off the floor in a mad panic (I was on mat leave, DH had just been made redundant) I appealed it and won

don't pay anything, write to them and ask them for a detailed breakdown as to why they think the overpayment had hapened and then if you think they are right see what the longest time you can pay it back over

it's interest free so the debt (if there is one won't grow) tell them what you can afford and they will usually accept this figure

If it's any consolation, I'm disputing an overpayment of almost 4k at present :(

A more shambolic, confusing, unworkable system I have yet to see. In today's technological world with all it's capabilities, it's a joke.

On what grounds did you win numty?

they made a mistake with the calculation

we had declared both incomes but they didn't include my part time wage in the calculation

there fault entirely and we had no way of knowing as they don't publish how they calculate the figure

the rule is if it is reasonable for you to believe the award was accurate, then you don't have to pay it back

Well worth appealing then! So it sounds like anyone has a good chance of winning if the mistake is on their part?

No, you don't want to appeal, if you appeal you will lose. You need to start a DISPUTE. If the information you gave them was correct and complete and they simply ignored it, or applied the wrong rules, you should not have to pay them back anything.

Amazing coincidence that I have come across this in another context just today.

We had an overpayment of £1200 - due to bad advice re another benefit for our daughter - but are having to pay back at £100 a month as they insisted it had to be cleared over a year and no longer.