can anyone help me re tax credits and maternity leave please

[SnazzyFizzle]

I am a single parent on a low income so I am entited to working and child tax credits.

I applied for the credits during my maternity leave and went back to work this week part time so I rang hrmc to inform them of the change in my hours. They told me that I should have only been paid for the first 39 weeks of my maternity leave but I took a year and received the payments throughout I genuinely did not know about the 39 week cap. So now I obviously know I will have to pay these weeks back but does anybody know how this works? Will they stop my payments until I have paid bacl what I owe?

Thanks for any help and advice.

Not sure if it works the same but when we were overpaid Child Benefit the payments stopped until we had offset the amount.

Thanks LIZS thats what I am dreading, I wont get my first paycheque from work until the end of next month so im relying on tax credits for food, bills etc

Does anyone else know anything about this?

If you are still entitled to tax credits they will take it back monthly out of future awards so you shouldn't be left with nothing this month!

Thanks RedHelen thats a relief!