HM Revenue and Customs. Can they do this?

[Amilcar]

My friend has received a demand from HM Revenue for the repayment of £1200 in tax credits which the dept. alleges have been overpaid to her and husband. My friend says that she provided all relevant information (and more) to them and, if they have made a mistake and overpaid, she believes they have no right to reclaim anything at this stage based on a correction of their previous miscalculation. Is this so? I seem to recall some similar precedent in the news not too long ago but have not found reference on the www as yet. Is there a test-case we can quote in a letter to the dept., please?

[bookbinder]

You might find this useful:
http://www.advicenow....-credit-overpayments/

[ABerrant]

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/cop26.pdf

http://www.hmrc.gov.u...-handle-txcr-opay.pdf

[friedgreentomato]

After every change HMRC sends out a change notice telling you how much money you are getting - you are then responsible for checking that notice and bringing any errors to HMRC's notice.

If you don't and you are overpaid then yes you have to pay it back!!

[themas]

Not possible to give a worthwhile reply without a lot more information about the case, which it is impractical to post here. As a generalisation, in most cases HMRC argue strongly that overpayments are recoverable but it does depend on the facts of the individual case. Your friend should get some help from a local welfare benefits advice service (quite a lot of Councils & social landlords have such free services) or CAB - making sure to take all the papers to any meeting.

[factor-fiction]

It is only in very exceptional circumstances that you would be allowed to keep it. Is it definitely a miscalculation, or is it just the result of the annual readjsutment as info comes in of actual income

[MASS1961]

What really really annoys me is when they tell you in September that "if we continue paying you this amount, by April next year we will have overpaid you by£***."
STOP PAYING ME IT THEN!!
But they don't, by April I owed them £450 and they then sent a "demand" for repayment. I rang and told them I couldn't afford it in one go, we negotiated and they were quite happy with £10 per month for 45 months, no interest!
What a waste of time

[EDDIE51]

Your friend needs to dispute the overpayment NOW . There is a 30 day time limit from the date of the letter. If it turns out that there was an overpaymen then he/she should tell them that she can not pay it back in a lump sum and ask them to take it back by reducing future payments. But you MUST appeal or it will have to be repaid.
They DO have the right to reclaim overpayments even if it was their mistake , so act NOW.

[lcg]

yes she has to pay it back - irrespective of the process of the overpayment. she can however, try to sort out a payment arrangement that suits both parties. basically, the govt can demand all forms of tax and housing benefit back with no appeal process (if the statutory time limit has passed) or cooperation from them x

[EDDIE51]

icg76 a lot of these demands for repayment are incorrect. If you get one you DO have a right to a reassessment and an appeal . The claim will be looked at again by diffrent assessors . A lot of these claims turn out to be wrong when they are checked. My son and his wife were told they owed over £5000, when it was rechecked the amount owed was found to be under £700 and they just pay it off at £5 a week.

[themas]

Eddie - so far as tax credits are concerned there are two routes. A formal appeal has a time limit as you say but you can separately dispute recovery of the overpayment without time limit.

[Amilcar]

Thanks everyone. Based on your advice and the websites suggested, we have sent an appropriate letter.