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Original poster

Tax credits overpayment ....what can I do

48 replies

wrinklytum · 07/09/2006 15:55

Owe them approx 2 grand.They made an error and had dps income as five grand!!!Any advice??

OP posts:

themoon66 · 14/09/2006 10:16

God this is all so unnecessarily stressful. I have to ring them at some point to arrange paying back my 500 overpayment. I must admit I'm thinking about getting a loan for the full amount and just sending them a cheque. Be done with them once and for all... tell them never to contact me again. If this is supposed to 'help' people, then it's a twisted world.

2plus2plus1 · 14/09/2006 11:37

I think getting a loan is a bad idea. If you get a loan you will agree to pay £25 month over 2 years for example and end up paying more than £500 because of the interest. If you ring TCO and tell them you are prepared to pay back £25 month until the debt is cleared you shouldn't have any interest to pay & will end up paying less overall - but on a month by month basis you are no worse off.

Obviously the £25/month is only an example - don't know how much you can afford.

If you are still getting tax credits they will just take it off next years award & hopefully reduce your payments rather than stop them altogether.

HTH.

desperateSCOUSEwife · 14/09/2006 11:42

found out in june we were overpayed £1100
paying it back at £70 a week

found out this week
they havent been paying ctc for dd3 as she has left school
for weeks but is in college
so will get a backpayment today

themoon66 · 14/09/2006 12:41

I know a loan is a bad idea, but I just want them out of my life. I'm not getting the credit anymore as I had a payrise this year, so they cannot knock it off month by month. I worry that if I pay so much each month by direct debt, they will cock that up too and take too much out. I just dont trust them to dip into my bank account.

Wordsmith · 15/09/2006 11:40

Am so glad this thread is still going (altho sorry for all my fellow sufferers at the hands of the tax f'ing credit office of course).

2plus2plus1 - how did they manage to overpay you by 8K? I thought our 6K was bad enough. God aren't they tossers. (or the system, rather).

Have just spoken to my accountant who is working out what my and DH's income was for the last tax year (05-06) so I can finally tell the tax office. Hopefully with some back calculating they will then reduce the overpayment.

My accountant also confirmed that to recover the overpayment they reduce the future payments and then 'if that doesn't work' (don't quite know what that means) they do attach to your PAYE.

As DH and I have only in the last 2 months gone back to employment after self-employment, and thus only just started paying PAYE, I bloody hope they don't latch onto our PAYE. It's bad enough that we won't be getting any tax credit for god knows how many years.

God what a f'ing stupid stupid system. We have no savings, I will have a £5K income tax bill to pay in Jan as well. The only thing we can do is extend our mortgage. I could weep, I really could.

Wordsmith · 15/09/2006 11:41

Themoon66 - I wouldn't trust them either. I wouldn't let them near my kids' piggy banks, never mind my bank account.

2plus2plus1 · 15/09/2006 14:26

The old system (Child Tax Credit I think) was put in place 1 year after I returned to work FT after Mat leave & part time working. They insisted they only wanted to the previous years salary as that was what the award was based on (i.e. Mat leave & Part time hours), despite the fact I was now working full time. At the end of the tax year told them what I had earnt in that tax year, which was about twice that which they had based the award on. I hope that makes some sense.

I wasn't confident enough to complain at the time. I am now disputing my current (smaller claim).

Wordsmith · 18/09/2006 08:16

Hmm. That's more or less what happened to me. Every year I have to drastically revise my predicted income figures up or down, but that's too late - I've already had the money (and spent it!)

maggymay · 18/09/2006 09:28

there is a web site that you can check for yourself how much you are to expect I check everytime our income changes this way they dont have any nasty supprises www.entitledto.co.uk/

tanyak · 18/09/2006 10:00

They also messed up my tax credits in 2004 have been fighting it since. They stopped paying my tax credit altogether to recover the money but last month I was paid everything i sholud have been entitled too and the overpayment since they messed it up
Just keep hassling and writing letters and eventually it will get resolved you just have to keep pestering them.

2plus2plus1 · 18/09/2006 13:04

I have just got my complaint pack in the post this morning - well 2 actually. Looks straightforward. Am just waiting for a spreadsheet giving full details which apparently will be very easy to understand.

Wordsmith · 18/09/2006 20:22

Maggymay that's a really useful link - thanks. Well I have my end of year meeting with the accountant this week so should be able to backtrack with the overpayment - and I can more or less predict what our income will be this year, unless either DH or I manage to lose our new-found jobs.

I think the £4K overpayment for 05-06 will probably stand but the 2K they reckon they have overpaid us this year is way out of line. But I repeat, what a f*ing stupid system.

saffy202 · 18/09/2006 21:18

Am in the same situation as Wordsmith - dh went self employed in November and had to wait until the accountant had done our books. Have been overpaid by £2800. They say they are going to stop our award but can't see how that will pay it off - will be paying it off over the next 6 years. I only hope that if they resort to taking it off me by PAYE they give some notice - don't want to be going to the cashpoint to find it is all gone

Wordsmith · 19/09/2006 10:11

Saffy I was told by the tax credits office that they don't stop your payments altogether but just reduce them - could be for years. My accountant then told me that 'if that doesn't work' - by which I presume he means if you start earning too much to qualify for tax credits - then they attach the debt to your income tax and collect it that way. So they won't touch your income tax allowance unless you earn too much for credits.

PinkMilk · 19/09/2006 23:44

£9500 overpaid to us in the last two years. We found out on Friday and I nearly fainted. Still waiting to hear what happens next, but I know for sure that they will be stopping all payments to us immediately while some agreement is reached. I will be fighting this all the way as I know this is there cock-up totally. Our circumstances are really easy, predictable and haven't changed - they just got it totally wronged, even when we called them and asked them to check if it was right.

We are stony broke and this was keeping us afloat ao now we are short of money every month PLUS faced with this big debt too.

Isn't helped when the staff on the phone don't actually know how the payments are calculated, and the maths of it is really complex and clandestine - don't know which arsehole came up with such a complex system, and then employed morons to run it.

2plus2plus1 · 20/09/2006 11:37

PM - Have you asked for them to send you a breakdown of all of the award & how the overpayment has arisen? They are supposed to be sending me a speadsheet which will be "very clear" as to the cause of the overpayment. Havn't received it yet though.

Nemo1977 · 20/09/2006 11:41

they are such idiots. We had an overpayment thing due to them not imputing a change when I phoned which they admitted. However when I appealed the decision they are actually only audited by themselves and decided I had still been overpaid even though it was their fault and we owed them the money. Complete arses..now every time I call I take name, time and adate.

2plus2plus1 · 20/09/2006 11:45

I'll count that as an answer to the question I have just started a new thread on the...

Is MN broken? I can't view any of the discussions within a subject. I get an syntax error message thing. I can only get into things if they are on my watched lists etc.

seb1 · 20/09/2006 12:03

I think I was overpaid last year and the year before, told them repeatedly what the error was they kept telling on the phone everything was sorted, I have a letter saying 2004-2005 is completely dealt with so are they now liable to go back a change this. Basically haven't spent a penny of tax credits received since 2004 as I don't have a clue what I am entittled to so have just put it the bank as I am in fear of being asked for it all back.

2plus2plus1 · 20/09/2006 12:06

Someone lft this link on another thread - to help you calculate what you are entitled to. It might help...

here

seb1 · 20/09/2006 12:09

I have tried that site the problem is I don't trust tax credits at all, so am assuming worse case they ask for it all back

2plus2plus1 · 20/09/2006 12:10

Is it me or is that a new emoticon?

seb1 · 20/09/2006 12:13

Yes sceptical face

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