Knew it was to good to be true!

[Cat]

Well you know how I found our child tax credit was based on the wrong income ammout for myself, so I called up and corrected it and they works out I was owed a grand and my weekly payments went up.

Well I had a letter come through today saying what the anual income our current benefit is based on, and if it was going to be differnt for the next tax year to let them know.

Well, the amount they have based it on is wrong! By about £4k anually, which I know isnt much but I think it puts us under a differnt bracket which means my payments would go down. I dont know whether to contact them and tell them this is wrong of not, cause I dont know how much this will effect my payments. Do I just wait till the new tax year and let them decrease my payments? which would be easier for me to manage. Or if I tell them now will they demand the money back? or just lower my payments??

 

[Yvonne]

Is it 4K under or over the right amount?
They can't demand more off you unless you earn over 25K between you, If it is 4K under ad you need to tell them a higher amount then they will reduce the weekly payments to you for a set time to get their money back.

 

[Cat]

its £4k under. But my payments have been worked out at £38 a week, when I think they prob should have been about £10 a week, so its a big difference. Baby is due at the begining of may so it would go up and Iwas told it would be about £50 a week (based on correct earnings!) so if I say nothing now, and let them just pay me naf all next year which I can manage with. (basically Im still wating on my maternety benefit to start in March, and Im earning nothing in the mean time)

Im just concerned if they outright ask for all the money back, can they do that? or do they have to just reduce or stop my future payments untill it has been repaid in the future?

 

[Caroline]

They won't ask for the money back. They will just reduce your monthly payments. When i renewed my claim in 2005 the muppet on the phone put the numbers in wrong and put my income through 30,000 lower than it should be, putting us entitlled to working families tax credit. They shoved nearly three grand into the bank then started to pay about 200 quid a month into our account. It took ages for them to stop paying it. Cos it was so much i opened an isa in oh name and shoved oit all into there so i could pay it back. I kept on at them and eventually they said oh no you can't give us it back we'll just reduce your paymetns until its paid back. Ok then but what happens when not entitled any more (norm get about £20 a month) kids will be about 20 when i finish payiny back. They then said oh when it gets to the point when your not entitled anyore you can pay it back in one lump sumwhats still owed or pay back at so much a week. I assume this is what they'll do with you, but knowing how useless they are it may not be the same for everyone. We currently gat no tax credit as we are payiny back the over payment. Will get paid back a bit quicker now have another one on the way. Hope this helps

 

[Cat]

Yeah I think I will do nothing and just update them when the new tax year starts to make sure from then onwards is correct. Once they realise they gave me too much this year, my payments would have gone up loads cause of new baby so I wont mind them taking some or all of that away, at least by then Iwill be getting more child benefit and my maternety benefit. If they kick off I will have a go telling them that I gave them the exact figures for our income of this tax year, its their error.

Idiots!!!!

 

[Caroline]

TBh tax credit ppl are a joke. They couldn't organise a midnight feast in a chocolate factory. I have to have all my paperwork sent to me at work 'cos they seem incapable of sending it to me at home, it always gets sent to the wrong place. In the past i only renewed my claim cos i saw the adverts on telly as i never got the pack. Last time i rang to do it the girl said you gave the wrong address you failed the security check i can't update your claim. I asked how was isupposed to do it then and she said fil lin thenpaperwork in your pack ands end it to us, to which i replied, well that's a bit difficult cos you keep putting my address down wrong and i never get any paperwork! Managed eventuallly to get some with an IQ above 3 who said i could do alternative security such as ni no and paye ref. so managed to do it eventually!

 

[Iwantone!!!]

im not saying its ur fault but what if they find out u have been paid to much they could take u to court if it was me i would let them know asap i was in a benefit case with my real mum im not saying this is u put she was claiming benefot she was not entiled to and got sent to do 100 hours community service and pay back all she owed at the end of the day its up to you and they do catch ppl !!!!

 

[Cat]

No Tiff it doesnt work like that its not benefit fraud! Its a miscalculaton on their part, and they cannot take me to court for it.I have not lied and said IM not working when I am or anything like that, they have just done their sums a bit wrong. I have checked online to see what happens in the case of overpayments as this happens loads, and they do just recalculate your benefits to cover the over payments.

 

[Caroline]

This is a slightly different situation as tax credts aren't "benefits" and when they overpay its normally there fault. I only realised it was wrong 'cos they said we were entitled to WFTC if the payments had been out by a small amount say 20-30 quid i wouldn't have thought anything of it. I worked with someone who was paid incorrectly from the begning of tax credits so she didn't realise. When her son left school all of a sudden they turned round and asked her for 6000 as they'd done it wrong. She didn't have tpo pay it back in the end. CAt i think its upt o you what you do. All they'll do is reduce your payments/sto p payments until you've paid back what you owe. As for as it goes you could have believed that is what your earnings were going to be but when you got P45 /accountant did books earnings were higher. I'm going to be stuffed next year if i get to buy my own practice cos my earnings will be all over the place. God knows how they'll cope. Think i'll need a good accountant. Hope you get it sorted soon.

 

[Iwantone!!!]

i no u were not lying i was just letting u know thats all what they could do its up to u at the end of the day !!!

 

[vicky]

they have done the sme with me cat, me and OH don't get any child tax credit and we proabably wouldn't get any next year either, we put our esitmate in for OH wages cos he never got his p60 which NTL are a bugger for not sending out and wrong for that, they paid us 300 quid over for it we told them the correct amount and cos it was wrong on their half cos it went down to about 30/40 quid a month we don't get any, but now OH has a better job lot more money i'll don't i'll ever see tax credit again.

 

[Cat]

It seems that just about everone I speak to have had theirs done wrongly at some point, no wonder they have had such a bollocking about the tax credit system. I will just tell them our earnings for the up coming tax year, as OH is on a set anual salary and leave it at that. No doubt it will change very slightly anyway as he will get a pay review next month anyway. If at some later point they decide they paid out to mch for this year I will just let them alter our payments accordingly.

 

[ablaze]

dont get me started on teh IR

 

[Cat]

dont get me started on the IR

Oh no, common what did they do with you? royally stuffed yours up? Do they actually do anyones right?

 

[Arcanegirl]

I know what the IR did, and they still havent sorted....

 

[ablaze]

theyve not paid me since september!! they basically accused me of benefit fraud, altho me n darren are back 2gether he pays me maintenance n nothin else but they think im screwing them!!

 

[beanie]

No Tiff it doesnt work like that its not benefit fraud! Its a miscalculaton on their part, and they cannot take me to court for it.I have not lied and said IM not working when I am or anything like that, they have just done their sums a bit wrong. I have checked online to see what happens in the case of overpayments as this happens loads, and they do just recalculate your benefits to cover the over payments.

Whilst you haven't said the wrong information you are also not correcting them. I know its a pain in the arse but I would tell them. It is a big miscalculation adn they are going to ask for the money back - why not do it now instead of getting a lot less money when baby is here?

 

[Cat]

Once the baby is here I will be getting my maternety benefit so I will be a lot better off, plus getting more child benefit, and the tax credit would be going up with having another child under the age of one. So if they just knocked £20 a week off then it would be a lot easier to deal with. But at the moment the only income I have is the child tax credit and child benefit. So to lose it now would really screw me up.

 

[beanie]

I can see your point but my friend got overpaid - was recieving about £50-60 but it was reduced to £10 and she really struggled. This was a few years ago so they might have changed it