Disputing / Appealing Tax Credits Decision

[LovelyBath]

Hi everyone, despite me telling the tax credits people all about our self employed income for last year (DH) and my incapacity benefit, it seems that in the calculation they didn't take the IB into account for income. Now, they are, and have told us they are going to take £1,600 out of our next year's amount to pay it back.

I am unsure exactly what is right, tried to phone them but it just told us to ring another which then told us to look online. I went to the CAN website and it recommended to fill in an Appeal form also a Dispute form if you are unsure. So I have done this. I suppose we may still have to pay it back. Is anyone else going through the same kind of thing? :-(

Whether you dispute or appeal depends on what actually happened.

Do you think the final decision is wrong? Do you think the incapacity benefit should not be included?

If you think the calculation is wrong (the incapacity benefit should not be included) then you should use the appeal route.

If you think the decision is right, then i presume you are saying you shouldn't pay it back. In this case, it is a dispute. However, under their dispute process you have to show HMRC made a mistake AND that you told them about the mistake. So when you reported your income and got the new award notice, did you check it and let them know they had missed off he incapacity benefit?

Cleo

Ok. I guess they made a mistake, but I should have told them about it? However as was unsure whether the benefit was taken into account as income, assumed that was why it was not being taken into account as income. Maybe, I should have clarified with them to start with. Od maybe the calculation is wrong (I looked at their tables and it seems from that we should get the amount even with the IB as still means we have a low income)

I guess as it seems so tricky to talk with them about it, in filling in these forms they will look at it and decide x

How long have you been on incapacity benefit? IB is generally taxable and is counted as income for tax credits unless you have been getting it continuously since before April 1995.

Appeals can take up to 18 months to reach Tribunal, so it is a lot of time if it is the wrong thing to do.

You might want to get a welfare rights adviser from a CAB or similar to check the calculation if you think it is wrong.

Cleo

Thanks Cleo :-) OK think not been on it that long. Hopefully they can sort it out sooner, we'll probably just have to have less payments for a while. Have anyone successfully appealed or disputed their claim?