God I hate tax credits

[kmbabycrazy]

Got a letter today telling me I had an overpayment of £800!! From 2011-12. WHY am I only just being told?? It's really driving me mad as student finance have been messing me around too.

Do government departments like these just get told to mess you about as much as possible? Do they have a sense for when is the worst possible time to hit you with having to pay back this much money.

I am going to ring them because I don't understand how on earth they could have overpaid me that much but it's just ruined everything as I had planned to do up the kids rooms as a treat and if I owe this money I'm just not going to be able to afford to now and I'm going to have to seriously rethink wedding plans

 

[KayBea]

i had this in 2011 a week before LO was due i got a letter saying i had under paid my tax by £650 for 2009. I rung them & said i wouldnt be paying as i dont work, im due to have a baby in a weeks time, im moving into my flat in a week & a half & i cant afford it.. its their mistake not mine so shove it. Not heard a thing since. xx

 

[kmbabycrazy]

Just tried to ring and all it said was "sorry we can't take your call right now. Please try again another time." I thought they were open until 8pm weekdays?!

(Totally unrelated but took me about 5 minutes to write that thanks to my darling daughter climbing on me and trying to stand on the laptop lol)

 

[Blob]

Yep they have only just thought to tell us that they have been overpaying since 2010 and we owe them around 3k on and because we don't get them anymore we have 30 days to pay them back....who the hell has 3k to pull out their bums?

 

[kmbabycrazy]

My SIL has just told me they expected her to pay back 3.5K in one go but she is paying in installments of £50 a month and it's going to take her until 2019 to pay it off!

 

[MrsT&Ben]

Takes the piss doesn't it!!! I don't see how they can get it so wrong!!!! Hope you manage to get it sorted x

 

[R_x]

Oh I'm worried now seems a few have just got these letters? Would just be our luck.
Tbh I think if it's there fault people shouldn't have to pay it back x

 

[Mummy May]

They shouldn't have to payit back if its not their fault. And you can appeal. Xx

 

[tallybee]

If you ring and say you can;t afford it they will let you pay off monthly/weekly what you can afford, I ended up owing them a few hundred a few years ago and paid it back at 15 a month

ETA we weren't getting TCs any more when that came to light

 

[Mummy May]

I'm on hold to them now lol! Wish they would change that bloody music! Xx

 

[kmbabycrazy]

Oh my god. Called and went through all the options for overpayments. Was on hold 20 minutes to be put through to someone who tells me he can't deal with overpsyments and he'll put me through to someone who can and am now on hold and have been for another 10 minutes. And the sodding music that is interrupted every 30 seconds...is it designed to get you as pissed off as possible before you talk to them?

 

[R_x]

I hate how the music stops for a second and you think "YES, I'M THROUGH" x

 

[Mummy May]

What did they eventually say? Xx

 

[kmbabycrazy]

It was mu fault but only because information they gave me wasn't clear. Am paying back £10 a month. Ended up on hold for another 20 minutes though!

 

[babycrazy1706]

That's a joke!!!!