Child Tax Credits - repayment demand

[WWESTY]

[Rant mode]
During the past 12 months my circumstances have seen a few changes....at each point I have been careful to inform TCO.

During the Summer I confirmed earnings for both myself and swmbo for 2004/5 (lower than expected) and forecast for 2005/6.

Beginning of September I received letter saying I hadn't provided information.

I wrote back saying I had and asking for an explanation.....

Beginning of December I had a further notice telling me I had been overpaid and that I would need to repay. I rang them, told them I had informed them of every change (which they agreed) so how could I be overpaid? I also stated I was still waiting for a reply to my letter of 13th September......

I was told that they had indeed received everything but were waiting for change of circumstances to "go through the system"......since September!!!

I have now received their demand for repayment!!!

And still no reply to my letter of September.

Every single communication comes in duplicate to myself and swmbo and many occassions in duplicate as well.....

What a great system.....

Fortunately its not a great deal of money involved and I don't know why I bother but I guess its the principle of the thing, and the fact that Gordon hopes that people like myself will indeed get pissed off and not demand what is due.

[/rant mode]

[minornut]

Civil servants generating paperwork to justify their existance?

[T5-R]

Another example of how incompetent this bo**ocks government really is.

IMO, while the Child Tax Cedits are probably, in theory, a good idea, they should just write off the overpayments they've made and move on, telling those people affected of any adjustments being made, rather than inflicting stress, anxiety, and financial woes on those concerned.

Pr@s!

[dern]

They screwed ours up too. They said that they'd take the repayments out of the payments they'd be making to us this year which means that we'd get nothing this year. It's not a huge amount of money but for those that rely on it then kind of dicking about makes it quite difficult to budget.

Mark

[chris watton]

dern said:

They screwed ours up too. They said that they'd take the repayments out of the payments they'd be making to us this year which means that we'd get nothing this year. It's not a huge amount of money but for those that rely on it then kind of dicking about makes it quite difficult to budget. Mark

Exactly the same here!, we didn't even want them or ask for them in the first place!

[T5-R]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4616590.stm

I wonder if the Brown family are claiming Child Tax Credits?

[john75]

With the old Family Credit system people used to be assese for the year so if thier income rose and fell as it can their was not all this messing about with paperwork.

[Eric Mc]

The Inland Revenue are breaking the law by automatically recovering "overpayments" from current payments. They are legally obliged to offer the recipient the chance to appeal against any claims for repayments of the overpaid amounts as there are a number of circumstances where the overpaid amount (even if it really was overpaid and is not an error) cannot be claimed back by the Inland Revenue.

By clawing the money back automatically, they are denying the recipient their legal right to appeal.

The whole Tax Credit system is an absolute shambles and I do not see it surviving a change of government.

The terrible thing is is that there is no chance at all of it sorting itself out. The way it operates is fundamentally flawed and it cannot be fixed without it being totally scrapped.

[WWESTY]

Eric Mc said:

The Inland Revenue are breaking the law by automatically recovering "overpayments" from current payments. They are legally obliged to offer the recipient the chance to appeal against any claims for repayments of the overpaid amounts as there are a number of circumstances where the overpaid amount (even if it really was overpaid and is not an error) cannot be claimed back by the Inland Revenue. By clawing the money back automatically, they are denying the recipient their legal right to appeal. The whole Tax Credit system is an absolute shambles and I do not see it surviving a change of government. The terrible thing is is that there is no chance at all of it sorting itself out. The way it operates is fundamentally flawed and it cannot be fixed without it being totally scrapped.

I fully intend to ask for a full explanation as to how the "overpayment" has arisen/been calculated......mind you, I also fully expect to get no response, or at least none that is intelligible.......

[Nick P]

get in touch with them NOW....ask for them to send you the booklet on appeals...in it is a paragraph which declares that if THEY have overpaid YOU, YOU have taken REASONABLE steps to inform them AND it is the mistake of the TCO then they will take the burden of the error......i was discussing it with a work colleague who had been through the same thing and they backed down......go for it....

[WWESTY]

Nick P said:

get in touch with them NOW....ask for them to send you the booklet on appeals...in it is a paragraph which declares that if THEY have overpaid YOU, YOU have taken REASONABLE steps to inform them AND it is the mistake of the TCO then they will take the burden of the error......i was discussing it with a work colleague who had been through the same thing and they backed down......go for it....

Excellent!

Worth a go then!!

[pies]

The Inland revenue are very good at taking money but pi55 poor at handing it back

[TeamD]

pies said:

The Inland revenue are very good at taking money but pi55 poor at handing it back

I think you'll find the hint is in the name!

[Eric Mc]

The Tax Credit system should not have been put under the control of the IR. They have never had to deal with benefit "hand outs" of this nature before and they just aren't capable of responding quickly enough to the needs of the claimants.