Exhausted and depressed with the bureaucracy of tax credits. I want to give up.

[MyMorningHasBroken]

I separated from my husband 2 years ago with our 3 young children. After doing some studying and voluntary work to get back to work, I started working 26 hours a week.
I stopped getting any help with council tax and my housing help went right down. After being asked constantly for paperwork every other month and confirmation of my salary, payslips and everything else under the sun I stopped the claim. So currently get nothing. I was trying to work with 3 young children, start a new life and tackle everything all at once and this just got me depressed. They were asking for new documents even before I'd even received them and for payslips before i even had them.
Now, tax credits seems to be doing the same. about 6 weeks ago I spent ages getting together all my nursery and childcare invoices, getting letters from my providers and sending all my bank statements for the last year. They sent this back to me so I know they receievd them.
I've just had another today asking me to send in everything again from April - September and for letters from both my providers detailing all my payments. (which were all clearly marked on previous invoices and statements.)
How am I supposed to go to the school nursery yet again and my childminder asking them to do all this?
I'm so sick of it all. I never claimed anything before I split 2 years ago in my life and always worked. But right now I feel why the hell did I start work again when it was so much easier not being in paid work and getting help and not being hounded all the time. Honestly, i sometimes feel like a criminal when I have always provided the correct information and evidence to prove my childcare. I earn about £700 a month and they seem to think that my childcare is higher than average for the hours I work? Bearing in mind it takes me nearly an hour to work each way.
That's a 3 year old in full time nursery and a 5 and 7 year old who go to the childminders after school.

This has just recently changed as i can now claim 30 free hours and they have been notified in writing, but the issue they seem to have is from last April.

Sounds like you've just been unlucky with all the compliance checks. It is annoying but they have to check a certain precentage I think. Universal credit is even more of a nightmare.

No help here but I feel your pain. I'm going through the same. It's a nightmare system, where all you do is repeat yourself, get asked for the same documents over and over again and the answer is never the same. The amount of "benefit fraud" is tiny in comparison to MPs over claimed expenses but we're struggling to get by & raise our children & they're claiming for second houses. It's so depressing.

Thanks Phoenix, glad its not just me. They say my childcare is above average for the hours I work. Less than £90 average a month (only work term time as work in a school)when in reality I was paying more for childcare than I earnt. Nightmare.

I haven't had any tax credit payments for over a year but i'm still getting letters from them - the worst thing is being made to feel like you are a benefit scrounger despite having a job and struggling to get by on one income just because you don't carry around last years' bank statements

It's an endless loop of going onto the webpage to be told to ring the call centre which is then so busy it just cuts you off!

My childminder told me they had contacted her too and asked her to fill out about 10 pages of form!. She told me not to worry as a lot of her parents go through the same and she says half her work is childminding, the other half filling out tax credit forms!
It's so wrong. They are not paid to fill out forms. I feel awful. She wrote me another letter bless her but the school have not replied to my request for another letter so I'll have to make do.
I do feel like a scrounger being made to feel like a crimminal trying to cheat the system when just trying to work. I thought they were supposed to encourage people into work?!
It's no wonder so many people don't bother.