Tax credit overpayment and debt collectors letter with no prior notice!!

[Poppiesway1]

Help!!
I've just got home this evening to a letter from a debt collector wanting payment for a tax credit overpayment of £2579. I knew i owed some due to their overpayments each year, and they were reducing my payments to claim it back, but as my tax credits stopped in March when my child care stopped no payments since were taken. I was told I would get a letter about repayments then. I've not had anything through scince then.. (I could have chased it up myself I know but it wasn't on top of my list and thought they'd contact me when it was all worked out) I've had to payback an over payment previously and they sent me a letter and I repaid it all, no problems. (Not really sure why I owe money as I've always given them the correct amount of wages and child care etc)

However I am now panicking that it is

1. a debt collector letter!! And will this now show up on my credit file!!!?? (It's Rossendales debt collectors)
2. that is a heck of a lot to owe! I tried looking at the online link they provided and there is no monthly option to pay, they wanted it in full (which I don't have!)

Has anyone else had a letter like this sent to them with out any communication from the tax credit company at all?

Anyone?

Did you not get a renewal notice in the summer when you did your annual declaration that detailed what you owed and the way it would be collected etc?

My circumstances were different as I didn't owe them a trying and it was an utter cock up involving concentrix and a million letters and conversations with them but actually after the initial panic getting debt collection letter worked out well for me because I sent them the evidence and correspondence and the case was closed very quickly.

Ring them. . They are actually much better to deal with than tax credits!!
I had an overpayment and they accepted £15 a month. .

No, I've not had anything since it was all stopped! which is why it was a shock to get the debt collectors letter with nothing else being received.
I've been googling and some sites say to ring tax credits and discuss with them as some say the collectors are not good / easy to deal with. feel sick after opening the letter and seeing debt collector name :(

You can try ringing tax credits but for me they said they couldn't help once it had gone over to debt collection.
I would start by stating you do not acknowledge the debt and asking for all the correspondence hmrc have sent to you in the last year relating to the topic and the calculation of the overpayment (if you haven't renewed then how could they calculate)
I've noticed their letters are always dated a good 10 days before I receive.

I work in a vets and for clients who don't pay their bills we send them to debt collectors.
I spoke with one if their officers one time and asked her if this affected their credit score, she said it didn't.

I had one of these letters last November asking me to pay £4k+ on the 28 December or threats/threats etc.

Tried to contest this with HMRC who just didn't want to know - i was one of those cases reviewed by Concentrix 2016 and they messed up loads of people's tax credits and ignored their evidence.

I rang the debt collector agency who were actually really good and asked how much could i afford per month so i pay £40 each month whilst i'm still contesting the decision.

Realistically if you are receiving tax credits its unlikely you'll have a spare 2 grand just sitting around so i think they do that to get people to panic and ring them :-(
If you can get help from the local CAB - they deal with this stuff all the time

Only debts which are consumer credit will appear on a credit check so TC overpayments (and vet bills as mentioned by a PP) won't affect your credit rating.

It is worth checking if you needed to complete a renewal - it has to be done at the end of every year if you had an award even if it was stopped midway through.

If you do owe it phone Rossendales and go through your budget and make a monthly offer to repay. Do a financial statement online at National Debtline first to help you work out what you can afford

Ring both tax credits and debt collection agency.
Tax credits are useless and I argued till I was blue in the face : that they’ve never sent any of the statements / warnings / requests, anything.

they denied everything. and said once had been sent over to debt agency there was nothing they could do.

I fought and fought and in the end I just gave up it was too awful.

Just an update.
I spoke to them, they say it was an overpayment in 2010-11!!!

I used to pay them back for an overpayment and I’m wondering if it’s the same one as not paid them for many years, they stopped the payments being took so I assumed it was all cleared.
I’m going to go to bank and check exactly how much I paid via direct debit. I don’t have paper work from back then still!

Can’t beleive it’s taken them 7 years to work out an overpayment!!!
They’ve put it on hold for 30days to find out exactly what’s going on!