Tax credits have very kindly put large amounts of money in my bank acount - is there any way to check it really is mine before I spend it?

[KatyMac]

I made a loss last year (I am Self employed)
I informed them last week

It's lots of money & I could spend it about 10 times over

But I am scared to

I'm not sure it's mine

I am a wuss

Ask them?

Phone them.

Don't be silly - last time they paid me lots of money - I rang & confirmed, then 7 months later they asked for it back

Phoning them is a waste of time

They could realise they have made a mistake at any time, as KatyMac says. They did the same to me.

Don't have any advice really, if you need to pay bills, maybe use it to pay them first and see how you feel in a few weeks???

We are just beginning to pay off a £5000 overpayment from a few years ago. They were quite sure it was ours then.

It's hard though isn't it, we thought about putting it away just in case but we were skint at the time.

Could you ring and ask them to send a letter confirming that it's yours? If you have it in writing, they can't ask you for it back after you spent it -- (or can they?)

It probaly is yours, but do tell them if you start to earn more. I had a lovely £5000 lump sum, but them DH earned more (slef employed)and we are now paying money back. The stupid thing is DH has had an awfull year and we have really struggled, and they are now paying us again - but still deducting the overpayment. I find it so hard to work out, I end up just having to trust they have got it right.

I know how you feel, my sister got over-paid by £2000 and was in real financial difficulties when she had to pay it back. One year they gave us around £1000, then months later we had to pay the whole amount back. They are absolutely shite. Somewhere in the back of my mind I have it that they can't take money back anymore, but am not sure. Off to google it now.

They gave me a lump sum of nearly £5000 some years ago - I spent 18 months trying to give it back to them with no luck. So I phoned them and told them if they hadn't told me how to give it back within 10 days I'd spend it.

They didn't so I did!

They then decided I should pay it back and are taking it out over time. Cheapest interest free loan I'll ever get

But seriously they are crap, couldn't organise a shag in a brothel. You can either spend it but be prepared for them to ask for it back, or stick it in a savings acount whilst you phone them and ask them if it's genuinely yours.

Good point Katymac - why not give CAB a call and see how you stand legally.

If you stick it in a saving acount, atleast if will gain you some interest - although not very much atm. If thye think they have over paid they will probably opnly take back 10 a week.

I rec'd an unexpected £4700 in child tax credit in august 2008...luckily enought i had the wisdom not to spend it...by october they were demanding £1771 back...which i paid...i then asked if they were sure now it was right? they told me that they could come back to me at anytime, if they discovered an overpayment...so i would say pretend you never had it stick it in a savings account and when or if the ask for it back, you have it to hand over, if they don't you have a nice little nest egg! i personally think i have enought on my plate without having the worry of a debt to the government...i'm not surprised as i have received in the region of 15 - 20 different calculations of TC & CTC since i first claimed it in june last year which is astonishing as my circumstances have remained identical the whole time....tho it has settled now...i wouldnt trust them...dont spend it!!

& they are now going to give me half as much again split between Feb & Mar

I am confused

(mind you it is nowhere near as much as you guys)

Don't spend it unless you really have too.They did this to us,despite me telling them to stop paying me and that they'd made a mistake,but they insisted it was correct.Then,6 months later,I got a letter telling me it had been paid in error and we owed them £2k.They are now paying us nothing until it is paid off,which will probably take until 2011,as we get the bare minimum anyway.

I do have the money,in my ISA,but it is their mistake,so I'm viewing it as an interest free loan,which I have invested.They do not know their arses from their elbows.

I was audited one financial year, told everything was as it should be and then bang they made me pay back £765.

Their mistake, their mistake again and somehow I feel like the one in the wrong.

Put the money somewhere safe.

As I understand it the rule of thumb is that you can only be asked to repay an overpayment if you could have been 'reasonably expected' to notice that the payments were too high. ie - if the income figures on your forms were too low, you'd got too many children listed, wrong ages etc etc. If all the details on the award statement is right then you should be entitled to keep any overpayment because you couldn't have known that it was wrong.

So, people who phone and tell them that it's wrong and to stop paying are automatically admitting that they know it's wrong and thus are not entitled to keep the money.

So if I told them I earnt £10K less in 07-08 than I thought I had (long story) - it would be a natural assumption that I would get more money

So I would 'reasonably expect' that the increase (7 days after I told them about a change) was correct

I would wait for the new award notice to come through, check everything is right wrt your income, number of hours worked, children etc etc and if it is then yes, you should be entitled to keep it even if it's a mistake.

For a £10K decrease in income you should get about an extra £3900 in tax credits per year. If you look on the HMRC website there's a leaflet that explains how your award is worked out - I always think it's worth working out your award yourself so you can check that you're getting the right amount.

Not even nearly that.....I wish

Well, there is an absolute maximum they will pay depending on the number of children you've had, so you've probably reached that level now.

Only one