Off topic but

[daisymae2]

Just a rant at the child tax credit people. Just had a tax credit demand for both my husband and myself to the total of £1000. :cry:How are we going to pay that in one go? They overpaid us when they started and despite having the correct info stated on the form they kept giving us money. We kept phoning them to sort it out but was told in due course it will. Eventually dh sends a cheque guess what they did with it. They put it in my bank account. So for the last 6 years we have been paying this back by not receiving any due tax credits and now we are no longer legible for tax credits they want it all back in a oner. Although we do earn a decent wage we have to watch every penny and budget really carefully for things. Totally exasperated. Sorry just had to vent as I am sitting here worrying where we are going to get the money from.

 

[Happy Holidays]

Stop worrying.

We've had the same problem. On the information you've rec'd it will say they want payment immediately or over 6 months.

I rang to say I couldn't afford to pay them back over 6 months, but I could afford X amount per month. Which they've agreed to.

I don't want to start how annoyed I am with them, especially like you it is through no fault of my own.:sigh:

 

[3106Catherine]

If you can prove they had the right info and still continued to over pay you it is their error and would be well worth you appealing it.

 

[AnnaFaraday]

Go to the Citizens Advice Bureau and see what they say. Or have a look at the moneysavingexpert website - there is often good advice there.

 

[knitter]

We had the same happen to us. We did the same as Happy Holidays but I was furious with my oh as he offered to pay back an unrealistic amount per month. If I'd have been on the phone it'd would have been the max of a fiver a month. They are lax in taking it back while you qualify for it but quick enough once you stop. Give them a ring and offer whatever you can afford. They are quite reasonable about it in my experience.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[Safia]

Same happened to me and still paying it off and the removed all my husbands working tax credit even though we r worse off this year than last

 

[daisymae2]

Thanks for the replies. Spoke to dh when he came home from work and told me to stop worrying that he would sort it. He tried to phone several times last night but just got told lines were busy and the phone hung up, guesssing a lot of people may just have received the same letters. Phoned today and agreed to pay over the year. Fortunately the amount was only half as I opened each letter to us and because it had separate NI numbers on each payment slip thought that they wanted that amount from each of us . DH says this is the end of the matter so will just pay up. I wish I had never heard of child tax credits as they have been nothing but bother although I realise they are probably a godsend to others.

 

[icklekimmy]

Hi, i used to work for tax credits up until 2006. I presume that you mean you had a problem with your original claim which meant getting manual payments and then when your claim was sorted it automatically paid out what was 'due' without taking into consideration the manual payments you had received?
If this is the case you should def put in an appeal as this is a system error rather than you not providing details which on the appeal form specifically states is a case for the right to appeal. Every time you have phoned a note will have been written on your account by the advisor which should back up your claims. This used to be available via a small fee through the freedom of information act so I presume it would still be now.
Even if your willing to accept liability you should still appeal the period they are expecting you to repay the amount over as it would cause financial hardship. Usually getting an mp on your side also works vastly in your favour for appeals.
I hope the training has improved as many people were overpaid due to errors by staff such as not knowing if one partners income was updated they also have to enter in the other partners details again otherwise only the updated one is taken into account. I hated the system and its serious flaws. Good luck.

 

[Shirleen]

I know we will have a bill this year as they lowered the maximum threshold, I am dreading it.

 

[icklekimmy]

I know we will have a bill this year as they lowered the maximum threshold, I am dreading it.

Look on your award notice, you should have a figure it says advise us if your income will go above X amount. If you stay under that this year then cannot be overpaid as that is the limit they have set you.

The income threshold rate used to be 2500 per annum so had to let them know if household income would be 2500 more than previous year, this lead to lots over overpayments as some people did not realise had to advise this. It was then changed to 25000 difference which is a bit ludicrous. Just checked hrmc page and its 10000 threshold. So as long as your within that 10 grand limit the income originally on the form for the year should be taken into account and the full income if higher will be taken into account next year. Ie if your income was say 40000 on form and was going to be 48000 this year you dont need to advise till do renewal as in your threshold and this years will be based on 40000 but next years on the full 48000 which would be less. Its a really complicated system which asks for problems. I have done my best to explain it so sorry if it does not make sense!

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/rates_thresholds_tables.pdf

 

[icklekimmy]

Just also found this link and I see that the higher threshold where you are entitled to tax credits have really come down since I worked there, actually disgusted by that even though I dont have kids myself.
I think some aspects of this bbc article will explain this 10000 threshold better than I did!

BBC News - How the new tax credit changes will work