family credit

Phoebs

Phoebs

Phoebs

Associate
Joined
17 Oct 2006
Posts
808
Location
Manchester,UK
you'll have to bare with me here as i dont really know what im talking about.


my mum received a letter some time ago stating that she had been overpaid her family credit by around £1000. This letter stated that this was because my mother had informed them that helen had left full time education on such a date but didnt tell them that Sarah (me) had left untill a much later date.

now...heres where it gets funny. We dont have a helen, there is no other daughter who was in full time education, just me. We have no idea who this helen person is. my mum informed them of this and some months later, we recieve another letter stating that it was a misprint of my name, which it quite obviously wasnt as the letter clearly refers to 2 seperate people.

spring forward to yesterday, my mum recieves another letter stating that if they dont recieve payment within 2 weeks they will be taking court action.

we have spoken to a solicitor who basically told us there was nothing we could do as they "rarely make a mistake" (ho ho ho dont make me laugh) and we should just pay it back.

has anyone got any advise or been in a similar situation?

sorry if its a bit vague but i dont really know all the details, just how much stress and upset its causing my mum
 
we were overpayed last year and about 4 years before that

its quite regular that they get it wrong

total overpayment I think was roughly £3,500

I even contacted them during these periods and told them that there must be a mistake as I knew that i was not eligable for a penny due to my wage - yet they still gave me £75 a WEEK!!! -

In the end we had the usual letter of overpayment which then resulted in a reduced tax credit for my missus

I'm sure that they will get it wrong again next year again!
 
i think its more the fact that we have been trying to resolve this with them then they spring this "2weeks or court action" on her. Where do they think she's going to get a thousand pounds from in 2 weeks? she doesnt even earn near that in a month.
 
Phoebs said:
we have spoken to a solicitor who basically told us there was nothing we could do as they "rarely make a mistake" (ho ho ho dont make me laugh) and we should just pay it back.
Click to expand...

Oh, the irony! "Please disregard the huge glaring mistake they made and just pay up for this fictitious person, because they rarely make a mistake". Alrighty then! :rolleyes:

I'd say you need to seek some proper legal advice post haste to have this clarified once and for all. Who was the first lawyer? H.M. Rev, Customs & Sons by any chance? :D
 
These guys are seriously incompetent. you tell them something over the phone they send you in triplicate 3 forms which all contradict each other.

we ended up owing them 1.5k because they refused to accept i told them about a payrise. we went and complained and went through there adjudicator but because we'd done it over the phone they refused to accept it.

i try and steer clear of them they can keep there money it aint worth it :)
 
surely if you knew you had been overpaid at the time you would just stick it in a bank account to earn intrest? there have been numerous cases of this happening and then demanding XX thousand pounds be paid in a week or death
 
I don't bother claiming tax credits, the risk of the average civil servant making a mistake in the ludicrously overcomplicated formula is too high.

Also, claiming money from the government isn't something I'd want to be relying on.
 
Phoebs said:
we have spoken to a solicitor who basically told us there was nothing we could do as they "rarely make a mistake" (ho ho ho dont make me laugh) and we should just pay it back.
Click to expand...

Did he buy his degree off e-bay, rarely get it right would be more precise.
 
I'm sure fraudulent demands and threats for money aren't legal...get the information you first gave them, and evidence of what you've been paid so far.
 
sr4470 said:
I'm sure fraudulent demands and threats for money aren't legal...
Click to expand...

You're joking aren't you? HMRC are (literally) a law unto themselves. I'd rather be in trouble with almost anyone but them! :eek: Their powers are quite scary lol Not to say the OP needs worry about this; I'm referring to their stop, search, entry and seizure powers etc not simple tax credits overpayments lol

You'd be surprised what legal powers HMRC have, and what they're exempt from. Nice doggie... *backs away slowly* :p
 
Rainmaker said:
You'd be surprised what legal powers HMRC have, and what they're exempt from. Nice doggie... *backs away slowly* :p
Click to expand...

Government employees are also allowed into your home to check the size of pot plants (not that I've seen them use this power), so no, it doesn't suprise me.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1036561/Now-1-000-laws-let-state-home.html

http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39159622,00.htm On a related note, yay for the DVLA selling drivers' information to private companies...
 
Last edited:
hopefully getting this sorted today. no doubt we'll end up paying it back as no1 seems to care about the puney people outside of the HMRC

it just means more debt for my mum and more stress

no the solicitor didnt seem to care at all but we have a number to ring for someone who will hopefully be more reliable
 
Have you tried going to the CAB citizens advice bureau? (can't spell).

Also get your points/complaint in writing, this always makes a company think twice and acknowledge your side of the story.

Edit: Hope you get it sorted!
 
personally let them take you to court and give the court a statement of affairs (income and expediature) and let them have £5 a month or something
 
I'd ignore the trivial stuff about them getting names wrong etc... it was probably a letter put together by someone on a low wage who copies and pastes generic paragraphs and fills in the banks.... If they're doing a hundred or so a day or whatever then they probably do end up with a few that make no sense, have paragraphs pasted in the wrong order or have incorrect names entered into the blank spaces.


What you need to do is fairly straightforward - just check the figures - how much was your mum entitled to - how much was she paid - if she was late informing them that you'd left full time education etc.. then there is probably a reasonable chance that she has been overpaid - if so she should make arrangements to pay them back. The calculation of how much your mum entitled to should be, assuming the data available has been entered correctly, pretty accurate - so chances are she does owe them money.
 
just spoke to my mum. Shes really upset coz shes been on the phone for a good while and has got no further. they told her to ring back later aswell.

i think shes just gonna give up as she's sick of fighting
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom