tax credits...inland revenue say i owe them

[TwasTheNightBeforeXmasOwl]

i received a letter from inland revenue earlier this year saying that due to my not informing tham of my earnings, they would be taking £500 from me in tax year 05/06...i cant be sure as ive filed the letter away but i think it dates from 02/03. i havent a clue how this happened. i know that theyve done this before and made me pay back £70 from a couple of years before, this i took to be a mistake on their part as i was claiming working tax credit and i think they had also screwed up my tax code, it being lower than it should have been. i let that one go but now i really dont understand how they can say i didnt inform them of my earnings. i had to renew the claim every six months, april and october. as far as i can recall, no-one in our company had a rise in the april as we previously had done. add the fact that i was made redundant in may this year and i am now claiming benefits. what will they do? and is it right that they can do this? i dont even know where the mistake was made. ive heard that if the mistake was on their part and reasonable that i wouldnt have known about it, i can get a form from them requesting it not be paid back. is this correct? if so whats the form?

I have similar prob. I rang and spoke to someone about a month after dp had payrise. I explained that i didn't want to be recieving too much, and guy i spoke to assured me i had not been overpaid, and that payments woudl then change. This was in April, i then received a couple of different payments from them in one month, which confused me and i assumed they were corrective payments from previous year. As it tied in with them receiving our update of earnings that year.
Months later i am sent a letter telling me all payments will stop as we owe over £600!!! I wrote to them - no response. I rang, the lady said don't bother writing, letters don't get read. She was very short with me on the phone, and not interested in hearing my concerns.
Now to be honest with you i have given up, and just accepted it, but feel infuriated.

Not sure what they have done with you, but did you inform them when you started claiming benefits? Cos if you are on benefits you cannot claim working tax credit, or rather you can, but the amount you receive gets dedcuted from your benefits therefore pointless !!

Let me know if you discover a form you can appeal on, cos the person i spoke to said there wasn't one, but i think there must be as their paperwork explains how to appeal!

Sorry not much help, but just thought i'd rant with you cos the inland revenue are the most frustrating!!

they have just done this to me too, saying i owe them £160, and there is such a form coz they sent me one....its called WHAT HAPPENS IF WE HAVE PAID YOU TOO MUCH TAX CREDIT? ref is COP26 which is a booklet and the form ref is TC846. the form says request to reconsider recovery of tax credits, you have to put your details on NI no etc, then there are 3 options to write in and choose.... 1) we/i thought the correct amount was being paid because.....2)i/we could not tell the payments were wrong because.... 3)i/we knew the payments were wrong and took the following steps to tell you.....

HTH

thanks lilsmum. i did tell them days after i was made redundant so i know its nothing to do with that...well not one my side anyway! no its something that goes years back..i cant even ask my ex-employers about it..parted on very bad terms! will ask them about that form.