Tax credits AGAIN, anyone else had problems when updating there details???

[mummy23]

I sent of my forms the end of April and the called us last week to see if my dp was living with us?? (why i dont understand?), and dp was told that i was entitled to more money from last year and that i would recieve it shortly.
Well, i checked my online banking and they had given me 3 seperate payments that totalled up to over £1200
I just believed that it may have been money that was owed.

Then i receive a letter in the post today stating that i have been overpaid by £1050, and i cant understand how they have worked it out???
They are also telling me that i am no longer entitled to ANY TAX CREDITS , how can they tell me that when i have 2 youngsters under the age of 4, with only my dp working! (i cant really afford to go back to work as child care is to expensive)

Has any one else had problems when they renewed there claims and did they get any large payments due then be told they have been overpaid???

They are really driving me bloody MAD now!!!

Thanks for reading and look forward to hearing about other expereinces with there bloody IR

Yes. They never seem to get it right. I rang to change my youngests DOB as it had the wrong day - wish I hadn't bothered as they changed the year which meant they had overpaid me for the year when I 'only had two child'!!! So I owe them for 2003 -2004 and that year has been 'put to bed' so they can't fix it apparently.

Whenever I rang to adjust something it appeared that the only info they had on record was the last I gave them - eg they only had a record of my childcare costs were and had always been £34 a week whereas in actual fact they had been at least twice that for the previous year.

As far as I can see the only reason you wouldn't be due any money (if you were due it before with the same details) would be because they overpaid you and your children were 16 so that there would be no more years when they could claw the money back. You might well owe them money but I'd be very surprised if you are not now due anything

But they are a law unto themselves.

They are really cr*p. Did you here on the news that if you receive a payment (ie a large one) then you should put it in a high interest account so that when they ask for it back you can give it all in one go and you've got the interest for the last 12 months. The thing I don't get is you think that they have under paid you and therefore entitled to it.
I've got to wait and see what happens this year as they over paid us last year.

Watched a panorama type programme the other week that reckoned that people were only overpaid/underpaid if they didnt update them during the year if their circs changed and that if it was for any other reason (ie; they had made a mistake) money would not have to be paid back???

do they have to tell you if they change the payment amount ? Mine suddenly stopped in February - no mention of why - I only noticed it when I checked my bank statements a week or so ago (we are reliant on it thank god).

I need to update them because DH has had a temporary change in job - but I am dreading them getting it all confused. Have been waiting for a p60's so that I could fill in the annual review form - but we didn't get one - just a phone us if anything has changed - surely everyone's changes from ear to year - even if only for an annual payrise ?

aren't reliant on it - oops

they should notify you yes, but they only do so afterwards- always have done.

that's right about if it is their mistake.... see your CAB. Same for the one who owes money for the year put to bed, sounds very wrong imo and ime (and I have had so many dealings with these people...)

the thing about circs changing... Dh was unemployed so we got max rate as I was employed but on Mat leave. Then he got a job and we were entitled to little, so the amount we were genuinely entitled to became an overpayment as it is averaged over the year. . it should be done monthly or weekly, much simpler.

I have had problems with them in the past when ds1 was only little and he was with a child minder while i was working 19 hours a week and they told me i was entitled to money, then they stopped payments completely

It took them nearly 8 months to start paying me again, and when they sent me the total amount i was entitled to, (paid it in a few large amounts) it worked out that they had short paid me by about £2000 (but after all the trouble and stress i had been through, and also finding out i was expecting another baby), i really could not be bothered with all the stress again, so i just accepted the £5k (it came in handy with ds2 on the way)

Anyway, if they don't show me the proof of where the overpayments where, they aint getting a penny back until i have been to my local MP (i cant be bothered going to my local CAB, or my local IR centre, it didn't get sorted out like that last time, it was when i wrote a letter of complaint regarding my situation)

I am just so FUCKED OFF with how they keep getting it wrong with all different families, how on earth do they expect us to but stuff for our children? They need new clothes every year (but luckily, ds2 has nearly caught up with the clothes ds1 is wearing!)

There are pains, I'm glad I have no dealings with them myself. You should phone them and take names, they tend to actually do something if you know who you are talking to and go back to the same person eachtime (if thats possible)
You can arrange to see someone from CAB from surestart, I went before and they managed to sort out Hackney Council for me but threatening with court action for uncompleted repairs.
Good luck, you may need it!

i think i will sort it after the wedding (they will probably mess things up again them as well), i am going to write a letter to them about the situation and see what they come back with (i just cant believe it is happening all over again)

I'm afraid to say but unless they change their system, you will have the same every year!
Are they trying to get money off you now or have they just stopped all payments you were getting?

they have said they are stopping all payments

Oh my God don't even get me started on Tax credits - too late - we had a letter week before last on Tuesday they had made a mistake and double our 2005/06 income therefore we owed them £2,500 and of course stopped our tax credits which were due on Thursday. We called them on Wednesday first thing, the person we talked to immediately saw the mistake and corrected it on the computer, we said will this affect our payment on Thursday and it was I don't now the computer has to correct it first. We realised we were going to get no sense out of him and made an appointment for our local tax office who couldn't see us until Friday. Thursday our money was stopped. My husband went in on Friday and they made sure all the details were correct and that we should get our owed money on Tuesday.
We were owed £82 I have loads of direct debits coming out of the account that my tax credits go into and there is never much money in there, so I had to borrow money to much sure they were covered and forgot one, so I had a £38 bank charge. Tuesday came no money so we went back to tax office. They told us that we would get a payment of £32 on Wednesday and our money would go up to £88 a week there after. Instead of just paying us back the money we were owed they paid £32 of it then divided the £50 out over the year.
Apparently the computer works it out and nobody can go in and alter it! The women at the tax office told us that the system is rubbish and we should complain. We are complaining and I'm making a claim for the bank charges. Everytime any of our circumstances change we have gone into the tax office and they cock it up and its really p*ing me now so I'm making a complaint if not else it vented my anger