Tax credits Ggggggrrrrrrr

[sbrown2]

Interesting......................I had the same problem when the tax credits system started. I'm not sure how many years ago, maybe ten. Anyway I claimed and was made an award and queried it over a year and a half. I think it came to £3000 all in all. The difference to you is, I recorded and logged conversations, although they have the logs, I sent detailed letters explaining that they had told me the claims were valid. They have a department that deal with these issues. Also this/was a massive issue. On radio 5, about a year and a half ago, they had a program detailing the the number of people who had been overpaid and how the state was harrasing them for repayment. Anyway, around two and a half years ago I got a letter telling me they would not be requesting the repayment anymore.
Alarmman to put it politely you are talking rubbish. These systems are introduced and quite simply the people who administer them cannot mange them properly ie the goverment of the day. I personally phoned them many times to query the claim, hey and guess what, I then spent it!!!!!!!!!!!!
The program I mentioned earlier detailed how the state were basically bullying people, because unlike myself, maybe they did not have the skills to direct letters or communication to the correct departments or did not have the tenacity to continue their claims.
If you queried the claim, especially a number of times, fight it!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mattmoo1974]

As long as you made them aware of changes in your earnings the overpayment is there problem.
If like many you did nt they ll want it back mate
My work mate got over payed by 10k they just stopped his tax credits til the debt was payed.
Go on Mark lewis's webby "money saving expert" or somat or other he gives out good advice on such things.

 

[CRAGS]

sometimes i give up..i really do..people like you bang on about how people should do this or that to make it a better place,while doing the opposite..boils my **** man..so your saying you got paid 9 grand by mistake and because they dont answer the phone in 1 ring its yours,no questions asked..you kernt..

No never said the money was mine....If you only knew the time I have spent on the phone trying to get this sorted not one ring and put the phone down I wish this was the case....There are alot of people out there in the same boat. As previously stated They have not being paying me credits for 7 years just taking it off what I owe but for them to just drop a letter stating you owe us 5000 pay by july or pay it off over 12 months £415 month. Don't get me wrong I knew they would come back for it oneday but they have messed me around with this I phoned many times to try and pay it back then gave up as said it is a premium number now they expect me to jump and pay it back when they say??

 

[sbrown2]

Did you query the payments when you first got them and did you give them correct data on your application?

 

[CRAGS]

We did query the payments at the time and we supplied all the correct data as my wife had finished at college and was going into part time employment

 

[sbrown2]

If you did this then and you know time and dates start a dispute. This will put your payments on hold. I don't know if the seven year rule is true, but its interesting that mine was quashed, maybe, around the seven year mark. I did query mine. I asked can I spend this or has their been a mistake. Remember its their system they should know how to administer and manage it.

 

[Octopus]

Our award was made incorrectly - and its our opinion that the DWP were are fault. I, at the time was on job seekers allowance "contributions based" and not "income based".

What we were told is that if you're claim for tax credits is under "contributions based" the amount paid is reduced by 90% compared to somebody who does an "income based" claim.

We had NO idea our payment was wrong, until we got a letter saying that we'd been overpaid by 90% going back for 11 months.

Our overpayment is being clawed back at 25% of our "current claim" and at this rate its going to take decades to pay back.

My question to them, which we put in writing, is why does the "contributions based" claim pay only 10% of the "income based"?? In both cases the income of the family concerned is the same so WHY the difference??

So, 9 months on our letter still hasn't been answered.

In a nutshell, if you go and sign on at the DWP, (IMHO) DO NOT agree to go on contributions based job seekers allowance, go for "income based" - as the knock on effect onto tax credits is huge.

For what its worth the tax credits people say its our fault for filling the form in wrongly, but we maintain that if its a credit based on income why on earth should the DWP job seekers based element have any effect??

As far as I can tell the people who sign up to income based job seekers allowance are those who haven't got a histroy of working for periods of time and paying taxes. So those of us who do work consistently, pay tax and NI are penalised because income based Job Seekers allowance runs out after six months PLUS we get far less on tax credits.

RANT OVER!

 

[alarm man]

No Offence Alarm man but from my understanding CRAGS has been paying his overpayment off with deductions and he has now been penalised for trying to replace this income with him and his wife working harder - to be told he should pay a big one off payment immediately. There seems to be no leniancy with this goverment!

Anyone with young children will testify that they are struggling to pay there bills and the tax credits help enormously. In an ideal world we would not have to give up so much of our hard earned cash while paying through the nose for the most basic esentials we all need. I strongly agree that hand outs. and newly arived imigrants (not to mention all the greedy ** in the banks & goverment & those rich **** who make there money out of this country but are unwilling to pay there share of tax) is totally unjust. If they got this lot sorted we would not even need these tax credit schemes, we'd be able to have the incentive to work our knackers off, knowing it was worth it for our families!
The conservative's have never given a ---- for the average working family - they don't connect or understand with the normal guy on the street. (there all the same - so this is not a political statement!!)

I believe that CRAGS is just a normal guy, who is working his arse off and trying to live his life honestly, only to be screwed over by the incompetance of the system we have to live with.

With respect he was looking for members personnal advise ( this has effected some and seems to be more common than first seemed) , NOT A LECTURE - saying that he should have spent half his life expaining to these useless ****** that he was right all along!!!!

More threads like this should be welcomed as real family life issues effect us all (unless your lucky and only 21!!)

with due respect,i know the systems are in place but does the average working family really need £10 per week out the benefit funds which are imo for people who really need it,granted we all need a bit of extra cash,i dont claim it not because im rich no where near,but when im spending x amount of pounds on sky.mobiles smokes beer etc seems a bit wrong to me to claim it just because i can,thats my opinion and i wont change the world by doing it,but if everyone did if would make a difference im not sure how many people claim it but say its 10 million thats 40 million pounds a month,and they let soldiers come home from war with limbs missing and expect them just to get on with life,id rather that money went building new houses for them and their families to live in or employing more polis or nurses and emptying bins weekly..

 

[sbrown2]

Alarm man we agree with you as to where the money should go. But stop being naive. It doesn't go to the soldiers. It goes to maintain politicians wages and pensions and propping up ailling banks. In the original post the guy mentioned he had been overpaid and led to believe he was entitled to this money. If this is the case why should he pay it back. And if he does pay it back it should be at a rate he can afford.