Working Families Tax Credit Overpayment

[Factfinder]

I am currently paying back over £2000 which the tax office say I was over payed although I disputed it. However, I saw on the news the other day that any overpayments up to £25 000 pounds legally do not have to be paid back and the government is trying to reduce it to £5000. Can I stop my repayments without fear of the bailiffs turning up at my door?

[friedgreentomato]

No, you have to come to an arrangement with them.

Legally HMRC have the right to claim any overpayment back - if they decided at a later date to wipe it off it is at their discretion.

You take the risk of having an adverse credit rating as HMRC now work with experian.

[Jemisa]

My daughter was in the same predicament as you FF same amount too and has to pay every penny back she was told.
Considering how much stress it caused because of THEIR mistake they should have reduced it a little.

jem

[friedgreentomato]

Its is the 'customers' responsibility to check all paperwork to ensure that the correct information is held.

[ummmm]

It's not like they don't ask you if the information they have is correct.

They work a year behind. They can't predict a change in circumstance.

[ummmm]

Factfinder - very unlikely that the tax man will ever send the bailiffs.

[murraymints]

too late now you have agreed to repay.....if you accept monies in good faith have no reason to believe there is an error and present a case for financial hardship it can be written off....I used to write off overpayments all the time.....

[Jemisa]

They checked and double checked all information & Didn't pay out untill they had proof of stuff so I'm sorry FGT it was an error on their part the woman on the phone more or less admitted it. I think "Human Error" was the term she used. Well it made a change coz most people say it was a computer error, but we all know 'people' feed a computer.

jem

[Factfinder]

Ummmm... A letter I received from them just before Christmas demanding more money did just that threatened me wit bailiffs. When I rang up about it they admitted it was an error and to ignore the letter, regardless of the stress it caused. I also kept them informed at all times of my cahange in circumstances and the reply I got was they can only change your income details twice in one year so the 2nd figure they get is the one they will use, hence the overpayment.

[Peter Pedant]

FF I would not mix it with the tax man - they have all sorts of unpleasant powers which they may or may not use.

Look at Ken Dodds case and I agree you are not in the category -
he was acquitted of the crime of evasion (in the sum of around a million)
and so that was the max fine (1m)
but altho acquitted, he had not paid £1m in tax so that was levied
and also pains and penalties (yeeeeow!) which shall not exceed yup the unpaid tax which in his case was another million
oh and interest

triple trouble - you will see that at stake is three times the unpaid tax

umm may have a tame tax man the rest of us dont

They can and have made people bankrupt for tax
and certainly raided pension funds that were set up with what they said was their money

and finally I understand it is the last debt for which you can be imprisoned.

Immprisonment for debt (see Dickens' Little Dorrit) for the rest of us was stopped in arouond 1850.

The tax man calleth.......EEEEK!

[Factfinder]

Thanks for all your responses - I'll keep on paying!

[themas]

FF Your question is based on a misunderstanding (presumably by whoever put the item on the news). The figures of £25K & £5K do not relate to overpayments which don't have to be paid back. They relate to the annual increase in income which can take place before the tax credit amount is reduced. This was £25K & is being reduced to £5K.

It is perfectly possible for HMRC (who run the tax credit system) to go to Court, get a CCJ & then send bailiffs if you don't keep to the terms of the CCJ. You should certainly go on paying.

[Factfinder]

Thanks themas, I'll check the wording carefully on the news item.

[Mojo-Jo-Jo]

I was lucky in that I could prove their mistake and they ended up owing me about 10 quid, but I have no doubt that my case is the exception rather than the rule.
How much simpler and less painful for some of the poorest members of society would it have been to just do the damn thing in arrears :(