Soldato
I'm only too aware of the charge. Before I get into the tale, let me give you some necessary background.
I met my now wife 8 years ago. She was a part-time Pilates instructor and single mum. As such, she was getting a number of benefits. I'm a high earner so when we moved in together she rang the benefits folks and laid everything out to them. They immediately cancelled all benefits but - importantly - told her that she could continue to claim child benefit. My wife even queried it given my tax bracket and was told unequivocally that she could continue to claim. Sadly, she never mentioned the conversation to me (hey, we were moving in together, merging two families and had more important things to think about
).
Fast forward a few years and, out of the blue, I get a letter from HMRC detailing my crimes, outlining the amount I needed to repay to cover the charge and penalty for not paying it at the time. I was convinced it was an error as I knew nothing about it. My wife then tells me about the £20 that she was receiving (weekly or monthly, I can't recall) and how the benefits people told her she could still claim. I duly get in touch with HMRC and say all this and get the response that, irrespective on what the circumstances are, I'm in the wrong and need to pay both the money and the hefty penalty for not owning up about something I had no idea about. With no option, that is exactly what I did. Not just that time (covering previous years) but also the next May to cover the tax year we were then in.
The icing on the cake was that my wife rings the child benefit folks to stop it (frankly we didn't need it and it just kind of vanished into our account so it really was pointless). The woman on the phone listens to my wife explain the situation and then says "oh, you can still claim it." My wife responds with the fact that I'm a high earner and then gets told "You can still claim it for yourself but he has to pay it back at the end of the tax year. It's like a savings club that he can't touch. Why not do it and get yourself something nice?" My wife was so gobsmacked that she just said "cancel it" and put the phone down.
To this day I can see no benefit from the woman's advice other than to actively cause division in a marriage. We laugh about it now but the sudden payment need lead to us losing a family holiday for that year. As someone else stated, ignorance is not accepted as an excuse. Somehow, I doubt "some gold-digging man-hater at the Benefits Agency told me to do it" would be accepted either.
TDLR: I got shafted by this as well and my wife got some terrible advice some the Benefits office. I now actively loathe HMRC and the benefits system.
I met my now wife 8 years ago. She was a part-time Pilates instructor and single mum. As such, she was getting a number of benefits. I'm a high earner so when we moved in together she rang the benefits folks and laid everything out to them. They immediately cancelled all benefits but - importantly - told her that she could continue to claim child benefit. My wife even queried it given my tax bracket and was told unequivocally that she could continue to claim. Sadly, she never mentioned the conversation to me (hey, we were moving in together, merging two families and had more important things to think about
).Fast forward a few years and, out of the blue, I get a letter from HMRC detailing my crimes, outlining the amount I needed to repay to cover the charge and penalty for not paying it at the time. I was convinced it was an error as I knew nothing about it. My wife then tells me about the £20 that she was receiving (weekly or monthly, I can't recall) and how the benefits people told her she could still claim. I duly get in touch with HMRC and say all this and get the response that, irrespective on what the circumstances are, I'm in the wrong and need to pay both the money and the hefty penalty for not owning up about something I had no idea about. With no option, that is exactly what I did. Not just that time (covering previous years) but also the next May to cover the tax year we were then in.
The icing on the cake was that my wife rings the child benefit folks to stop it (frankly we didn't need it and it just kind of vanished into our account so it really was pointless). The woman on the phone listens to my wife explain the situation and then says "oh, you can still claim it." My wife responds with the fact that I'm a high earner and then gets told "You can still claim it for yourself but he has to pay it back at the end of the tax year. It's like a savings club that he can't touch. Why not do it and get yourself something nice?" My wife was so gobsmacked that she just said "cancel it" and put the phone down.
To this day I can see no benefit from the woman's advice other than to actively cause division in a marriage. We laugh about it now but the sudden payment need lead to us losing a family holiday for that year. As someone else stated, ignorance is not accepted as an excuse. Somehow, I doubt "some gold-digging man-hater at the Benefits Agency told me to do it" would be accepted either.
TDLR: I got shafted by this as well and my wife got some terrible advice some the Benefits office. I now actively loathe HMRC and the benefits system.
