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Posted: 06 September 2008 at 4:39pm | IP Logged

Hey All,

Some of you might remember me raving about tax credits giving us some back pay in July, well now they must have decided they can't afford to be getting a good rep, cos they've made a right fluff!

It's nothing to do with the money we got in July, but today DH received two letters from the tax credit gang. The first is a letter which states "We are sorry to tell you that you no longer qualify for tax credits because you did not sign and return a notice that was sent to you on 25/04/2005". The letter is titled as 'Ref Tax Credits 06/04/05-05/04/06'. They also say DH owes them £1032. Now this thoroughly confused me as I couldn't understand why they were now raising issues about something DH should have apparently signed 3 years ago, neither could I understand the bit about them stopping our TC cos they never have and I've checked the bank and our TC have gone in as normal thid week. THEN I looked at the date on the letter and it's dated  26 September 2005!!! They've just posted us a letter out that I can only assume should have been sent to us in Sept 2005!

To make things worse another letter from them has come at the same time stating "We have already told you about the overpayment for the period ending 11/04/2005". This letter is dated 1st of September this year and is demanding we pay the £1032.

I'm completely confused! I've tried calling them, but their systems are apparently offline until Monday. The thing is I don't unerstand how they've managed to overlook the fact we allegedly owed them a grand for the last three years. Nor can I understand why their computer hasn't picked up on this when we've put our renewals in every April since then- this overpayment has never been mentioned. They gave us a joint backpayment of almost a grand in July, so why didn't they just take their grand out of that if we owed them it? Also, the first letter states "if there is a reason for your not returning this form, please contact us immediately". Well I always fill in and return any TC forms me or DH get, and if we had received this September 2005 letter back in September 2005 I would have queried it back then, and if neccesary asked them to send him another form to sign. I'm assuming that the one he sent back at that time must have lost in the post, but as they haven't sent us that letter until now, how were we supposed to know that? I can't believe they think they can send us a letter that is 3 years old, and expect us to just hand over a grand. Me thinks someone has seriously fluffed up!

Posted: 07 September 2008 at 10:33am | IP Logged

I would try not to worry about it for now. Wait untill you can talk to someone. It sounds like a big mess up

Posted: 07 September 2008 at 1:07pm | IP Logged

did he claim singley in that tax year if he did and they overpayment is only in his name u will not be able to discuss that account he will need to ring back himself? i work for tax credits and also for the overpayment helpline. email me if you need an advice.

as for the 2000 allowance that is not true. if you have an overpayment of any amount tax credits will seek to claim that overpayment back.

we are having a system test this weekend which is why there is no access.

i dont know why there has been a delay in rec the letter.

let me know what ur told when u ring up il se if i can answer any queries

Posted: 07 September 2008 at 4:27pm | IP Logged

Thanks Tilly, that would be really helpful

DH has never claimed Tax Credits singularly, it as always been a joint claim, which was why I thought they would talk to me. I think the issue is that despite the fact it's a joint claim, the Working Tax element comes in DH's name and the Child Tax element comes in my name, so I'm assuming this only relates to the Working Tax element. DH is going to call them tomorrow afternoon when he gets home from work, but TBH we are going to argue tooth and nail to get the account cleared. The reason they are saying he owes them it is because he didn't sign something 3 years ago, but if they had sent us the Sept 2005 letter, in September 2005, we would have rung them and arranged for them to send us another one (cos as I said before, we can only assume it got lost in the post cos we always return everything they send us). As it stands we were never given the chance to do that because it's taken them three years to post out this ruddy letter. We are also going to query why if we have owed them this grand for the last three years, it has never been mentioned in our last three annual renewals nor when I rang up in July to check they hadn't made a mistake with the money they gave us then. It's quite funny cos the 2005 letter states that they will be in touch with us 'shortly' to arrange repayment, but the letter demandinf repayment is dated Sept 2008! 'Shortly'- I don't think so At the end of the day, this is clearly there cock up that should have been sorted in 2005. We're hoping that we can just arrange for DH to sign the form he should have signed in 2005 (obviously from the letter we received, they still keep forms/records from back then) If it gets silly, then we are going to see the CAB cos it's clearly their mistake.

Will keep you informed  xxx

Posted: 07 September 2008 at 5:57pm | IP Logged

I would also contact your local MP for support. I remember when DD was born that our local MP where we lived then managed to get numerous Tax Credit overpayments written off for families who had been overpaid as it made the local press at the time.

Hope you manage to get this sorted.

Posted: 08 September 2008 at 9:28pm | IP Logged

if its a joint claim then the advisors acn speak to either of you about it. let me know what they say i work for them nd it does sound odd that if there saying it was because you hadnt done ur decleration as you would have known about that as ur payment would of terminated.

let me know whats been said when u have spoken to them....

wonder if u will get me lol

xxx

Posted: 08 September 2008 at 9:36pm | IP Logged

Well DH called Tax Credits today and it turns out the plot is even more complicated than we first thought The reason I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone about the account was that, this overpayment is in fact nothing to do with our joint account, but is in fact to do with a single account in DH's name. The only problem... as far as he's aware he's never claimed TC on his own It turns out someone has put a single persons claim in DH's name registered to his old address in Scotland. The last payment was made in Sept 2005, and the reason they haven't contacted us until now is because it's taken them three years to trace DH to this address (which in itself is odd cos he's been registered with them at this address since March 2005) Basically, someone applied for tax credits sometime before 2005 (they can't tell us exactly when) and had money paid into a bank account (they also won't give us any info on this) until Sept 2005, when their tax credits were stopped cos they didn't send off their April 2005 renewal form. Since then, all their correspondance has been sent back as 'not at this address', so since then they've been searching for the person that made this claim. From what we can gather this person has used DH's name, NI number and DOB to make a claim, so that tax credits now assumed it was him. To make things worse our joint claim actually started before theirs ended, and yet the TC didn't pick up on the fact DH was allegedly making two seperate claims, which has only made life easier for this Fraudster. DH closed the bank account he had at that time in 2006 (whe we opened a joint account), so we've had to ring his old bank and get his roll number in an attempt to prove that the money they were paying wasn't going into his account. We have also to fill out a dispute form stating that DH has not made this claim and will possibly need to provide copies of documents which prove DH no longer had access to his old address at the time the claim was made (our council tax bill etc- he was hardly likely to nip the 5 hour trip back to Scotland to sign the forms was he??) It has all now been handed over to the fraud team at TC apparently and we've to wait to see what they come up with (and for them to verify the account that was receiving the money wasn't DH's)

It's all a right mess, but we're hoping if it's proven to be a fraudulent claim, we'll be taken out of the equation and the TC lot will concentrate on trying to find the real fraudster Poor DH is really stressed out about it all and is worrying that his past mistake is gonna affect our finances (he forgot to change his bank details straight away when he moved from that address, so this person is likely to have managed to get hold of one of his bank statements) I'm so angry I could yell! I wish I could get hols of the scanky thieving beggar who has done this, cos I'd bloomin slap em!

Happy Anniversary to us eh?