Tax Credits

[CarlC]

Need some advice. Tax Credits

So last year, I started doing more hours in the same company I work for. I went from working 22 hours to 35 in the same company I have worked for the last 5 years.

I called them up today to announce child care changes and another change of employment. They told me that they didn't update my changes last year and I am facing a massive over payment. I asked what notes are on the system and he confirmed, that in Jan 18, I did indeed call up and confirm that my hours would be changing from 22 to 35. However if I didn't notify them of the specific amount my wages changed by, this could be a problem.

I worked for minimum wage as a carer, I'm a single parent, need child care and now face from my calculations, a £45 per week over payment. As far as I was concerned, everything was above board. I announce everything and always keep them informed and in all honesty.

Does anyone know what I should expect and what I may be able to appeal. It's making me feel sick.

Did you not notice that your payments had not changed in line with increasing your hours ?

You will have had a renewal letter since then, so they will probably say you should have picked up the mistake.

Probably not what you want to hear but I went through this too and had a massive overpayment. Genuinely think tax credits are more hassle than they're worth.

I updated them all the time about every change in circumstance but apparently it doesn't matter as they work in arrears. They're an absolute nightmare.

The good thing is you can pay it back in little installments rather than all at once.

Me and my OH had a huge tax credit overpayment in 2013, we had just had dd1, both worked, and was before the online system.
They hadn’t took the full details I had told them over the phone, and it was my word against there’s and guess who won. Letters they claim they sent hadn’t been received by us either. I appealed it to the moon and back, it made me mentally and physically ill, but there was no fighting them.
We were overpaid by just shy of £6,500. To this day, we have only paid back roughly half through our entitlement (they reduced the payments paid to us).
They do like to scare the crap out of you by saying you may have a financial penalty or prosecution, but that’s very extreme.
Like pp said, they do take it in small payments. I thought at one point they were taking too much, so they reduced it (which will ultimately mean taking longer to pay back).

I appealed against mine . I had 2 claims running. I kept phoning them asking them to close the joint claim down . It took months after appeal I only had to pay back a month as they had a month to deal with change of circumstances.

They claimed they'd made an o repayment to me too. They're total wankers. Wish I'd never taken out child tax credits.

*overpayment