Huge overpayment child benefit

[sarahjnm]

Hadn't realised living with £60k earner meant that I shouldn't rcve child benefit for my daughter. Only just realised. It's been 10 years.
Anyone else been in this situation? I'm guessing I pay all back and penalties too. Could be as much as £15k.
I'm feeling suicidal at the thought. Our family are struggling as it is with various other things.

Yep. I've asked him to sort this every year for the past 5 years. They're so difficult to get through to, he gives up (arghhh). Anyways, this year, they replied in the summer and said he didn't have a claim. I checked my HMRC account (no idea!) and the claim was in my name and was SO simple to cancel. BUT we'll still have to pay it back this year. Argghhhhhhh

When we had no income we got Child Tax Credits. When my husband got a job it meant we'd been overpaid for the year by quite a considerable amount. We paid it back at about ten pounds a month for the next fifteen years. The only time it was a larger amount was when they turned 18!

You can argue to only pay back what you can afford after your outgoings and they don't check once it's set up.

The threshold was £50k earners until this year. But it's a sliding scale depending on how much your partner earned. I'd get some advice from CAB or similar and be honest and ask for a payment plan

It's the higher earner who legally obliged to pay irrespective whether that's the claimant or the partner

Well that's something I didn't know

Tax man caught up with me after TEN years for an overpayment they want back. Ten years! Just got a letter saying pay up £2k which I couldn't so they've changed my tax code. I had absolutely no idea.

For child benefit too?

Did you really think living with someone with such a high income that you’d be entitled to state aid?

Not helpful 😊

You can have two earners in the house earning just under the threshold each and be entitled to it! Yet you can have one earning nothing or very little and the other just over (so a much lower household income) and have to pay some/ all of it back!

Here they sign the mother up when they register the birth which I think is a good idea.

My DH earns over the threshold but I have opted to keep mine for my own personal reasons and he does a SA (he wouldn’t normally do one) and pays it back each year. We’ve been aware of this for the past 10 years and he keeps the money aside each month so it’s not a big deal. He has no issue with this whatsoever.

We had a £5k tax credit overpayment. There was a issue with the figures. Their input fault but we never checked the letters either. They did want it all back in one go but we agreed a payment plan. Also happened to my workmate.

You can speak to the debt management team and offer to set up affordable payments. Payments start from £3+ onwards, a week or monthly. Take a breath - Yes it's a big overpayment, but it happens to us all, you still have an income, a roof over your head, food in your belly. If you are feeling suicidal, there are also teams there who can support you with this and support setting up small, affordable payment plans. You're going to be OK.

No advice, was in same situation husband wage plus bonus tipped him over 80k.
Hmrc wanted full amount paid back straight away 😫

Cancel your claim now! I’m all for right and wrong but in this instance, if you have made a genuine mistake, just try and remove your name from their system and hope!

What happened? Payment plan? Penalties?

The claim is under my ex husband, money directed to my account. He has to cancel. Which we will do.

They changed his tax code
and we paid 2 lump sums

Ime owning up and dealing with it is much less stressful than worrying about the what might happen scenarios.

I can see a mistake was made, awkward when 2 households involved. Be clear with HMRC as I found your post confusing with exh and cDH.

This, completely. Mothers who carry on receiving CB are doing nothing wrong.

It just went up and £60 is now the minumum. Before that it was £70 or 80 max…

op, you will not be the one paying though. It will be your partner and deducted from his/her pay so make sure they know.

The OP said she's going to be paying it.
For some reason she's taking all the blame for it and responsibility for paying it back.

Missed that, thanks :)

Various ways of paying as per people on this thread who have gone through the same.
Lump sum split into 2
One big payment up front
Installments arranged with a payment plan, through paye most often.
Yes he will pay but I will reimburse him the money. My mistake for still rcving it. No abuse in the relationship. He's a generous family man. This isn't his problem to manage on his own. Yes he should have checked with me. And yes I should have questioned rcving it. Hindsight.

Although I had to actively tell my accountant- he'd never heard of it! Lucky I had.

>I had to actively tell my accountant- he'd never heard of it

Change your accountant, I'd immediately think what else doesn't he know about? The accountant might prepare your tax return but it's your signature on the submission - if he misses something it's all on you.