tax credits debt

[ady1320]

Evening all
today my wife got a nice letter from the revenue & customs telling her that she was overpaid
working tax credit & child tax credit back in 2004 to the tune of almost £1500.
Anybody else had the same letter and is there any thing you can do about it.
cheers

[Sarnie]

Why have they gone back nine years??

[ady1320]

Beats me the letter just states the three lots of overpayment why it go's back so far seems a bit unfair
to me after all it was there cock up.
She is going to ring them tomorrow ill let you know what happened.

[New POD]

Wifey works for the CAB and we still managed to be overpaid by £2500.
Ring them up, tell them you can't afford to pay it all back, or indeed any of it, and they will work out a payment plan, tell them that you can't afford that, and they'll offer you a better deal.

In our case I got confused when son went to university, as the statement they sent said "Son in full time education" "daughter in full time education"
Because I'd just filled in the student loan forms, I assumed that the Government knew that he was in full time education. Eventually they caught up with us, but continued to pay, whilst they reasssed the claim.
In my case I pointed out that they now worded it "In full time secondary education" and he was in FULL time education, and they admitted that 1000's have fallen into the same trap. Instead of £230 a month, we should be getting £56 a month, but it's reduced to Zero until child 2 is no longer in full time education, and then we will get a nasty demand for about £1200, at which point I'll have to negotiate repayments. I'm thinking 10 quid a month for 120 months ?

[ady1320]

cheers for that Pod very help full she as also been told if they have not claimed it back with in
seven years they cant do it.
let you know tomorrow what happened

[New POD]

If you provided the right information, and they overpaid, you can be much more churlish with them, but basically be really nice on the phone, keep stating that you think they made the mistake, and that you really can't afford to pay it back due to all your other debts, but tell them what you can afford.

[Mr-B]

Unless there is some legislation saying otherwise I believe that there is a "statute of limitations" which allows debts only up to 6 years old and no older. I could be wrong on this as it's a debt to the government as it were which may not be subject to that rule of 6 years. Be worth looking into it perhaps? Although the limit is 6 years it doesn't stop a creditor asking for an older debt to be repaid, it's just that legally you could tell them to "do one" and they have no method of legally enforcing it.