Annoyed at tax credits advice please?

[anon1987]

Hi my daughter was awarded Middle rate care dla in January, I informed tax credits and am now owed around £800 in back pay.
I called today and they informed me it would be paid back to us at £7 a week?!?

This doesn't seem right to me?

Can I complain and have it paid back at a higher rate? It's taken them several weeks to sort out.
Any advice appreciated.

I was owed back payments and got it in a lump sum. Yanbu.

Crazedzombie I just don't understand why they would pay it back so little at a time. It would take several years to pay it all back?!

They did this to me when ds was born. .
Had my Hb reduced as it looked like had more income when it was money owed!! Def ring them. .

That makes no sense to me! When I was owed money I got it in a lump sum. I mean, unless you put the £7 in a jar and don't touch it.. what the hell use is it?! £7 goes no where. Ynbu.

Any underpayment due to you for the 16/17 tax year should be paid as a lump sum (Under Section 30 of the Tax Credits Act). However, if you are owed money from 6 April to now in this tax year, they can spread that out over your remaining payments.

Cleo

Cleo but the money is owed from January this year, so it can't be that?

They are two separate tax years though. When you complete your renewal to finalise the 2016/17 year, that should include the extra money from January to 5 April - that should be paid to you as a lump sum if you have been underpaid.

The bit of it from 6 April to now will be included in this year's award.

It is possible whoever you spoke to has only mentioned the change to your current payments and forgot to mention the finalisation of the 16/17 claim.

You will need to wait for your final award notice for 16/17 once you complete your renewal. Then you can ask them for the payment.

Thanks cleo for your posts!
I did my renewal online a few days ago.
I'm owed roughly £600 between Jan and April.
Do you think it's worth me phoning them again?
Where can I find the legal documents online which state this? I don't want them fobbing me off.

I would perhaps wait a week or two for your final award notice and then phone them. They won't know until the system does the finalisation.

Info here on underpayments revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-do-tax-credits-work/understanding-overpayments/

And Section 30 TCA 2002 is here revenuebenefits.org.uk/pdf/Tax_Credits_Act_2002_Dec_2016_update.pdf (you will need to scroll through to Section 30 - but basically that section is saying where a claim is finalised (a section 18 decision) if you have received less than your entitlement then it must be paid to you.

Cleo

They let people pay back overpayments at small amounts per week even when the mistake is the claimants fault so maybe they are just evening things out now?
Having said that I've never heard of them doing it this way before.

Thanks once again cleo in the end I did call them and apparently the underpayment was used to pay an overpayment from 4 years ago?!?
None of it makes sense?? The overpayment is more then what I received in tax credits for that year?!?
I'm absolutely done with it all. If I could work and not have to rely on them to top up my partners wage, if they could only tax him a little less, then we wouldn't need to survive on them. Right now I have to care for my daughter, and she can't be put in childcare due to her complex needs.
I would happily pay back money, if it were actually owed! But according to my files that Iv just spent ages going through, they've plucked the numbers out of the air

Ah, i was going to ask earlier if there was an overpayment on the claim, but didn't want to complicate things.

They can only take a certain percentage of your overall award - it sounds like you are going to need to wait for your final award notice so you can see exactly how much your final award was for 16/17 and how much has gone against the overpayment.

Did you know about the overpayment?

You are most likely out of time to challenge it now unfortunately.

Cleo

No I knew nothing about the overpayment, and the amount owed doesn't even tally up.