just a quick question guys as iam a little confused about those payments. Iam currently on long term Incapacity Benefit and on DLA mobility component hughest rate. Am i entitled to a cold weather payment as under my poostcode iam entitles to 4.

Normally overpayments are paid back from existing and future claims. When you no longer have an award and still owe money you normally come to an agreement on how much you wish to pay back each month. If HMRC have decided to change its mind on an agreement it said ok to you normally have a good case to deny any increase in payments. I would advise that when doing your income and expence you put every thing possiblke you can think of that you have to pay out , that includes your monthly shopping bill rent gas electricity, petrol insurace etc.. I would also contact your local MP if you have not already and explain to them that you accepted the overpayment and had agreed on how much to pay back each month etc and how they have decided to try and claw the money back at a higher payment each month which would serverly degrade you quality of life and would affect your health as you would not have any social life which is a must to combat stress in the workling life. Be strong and firm to them but not nasty make sure you put every expense down as possible. I would however still appeal against the overpayment if you think that everything was done correctly. I hope this helps and good luck

From what little i know of CSA which is run on a HMRC site. Anyways some strong advice on here and if CSA is not willing to help you should you should start the ball rolling. Contact the police and put a case of fraud against your ex. Seek some legal reprisentation. You have proof of payments and this shows you how willing you have been. Make sure you strongly push forward that you no longer wish to do private arrangement and force CSA to do it. If I am correct you can claim some sort of damage from your partner also if you were not receiving mail CSA should not have taken any action untill you received a letter and if theyknew where you worked a letter should have went there as all avenues should be taken to get contact. CSA system is just poop and the people who work there are just as confused as many other people. I my self would push this to its full extent and make an example of your ex as she has clearly decived you and the CSA agency. I would follow all the advice given to you on this forum. This type of situation can make you ill and loose your job due to stress. You have been 100% upfront on you obligations to your child via payments etc and CSA know this as on countless occasions you ex has went to them and decided to reverse here decisions serveral times and in the most recent case fraudiently. I hope everything works out for you and your ex should be made an example of .

Hi When you informed them of a change did you receive a tax credit award which stated these changes ? If so was those changes correct ? If they are not and you phoned them to tell them this then you may have a case to no longer pay the the overpayment. However if you did receive an award notice and you did not look at it to notice the changes were wrong you may have a harder time to squash the overpayment as under legal terms "Ignorance of not reading the award correctly" is not a acceptable excuse. Here is what i suggest you do and I hope it helps. 1) Check all your award notices and check if they are all correct. 2) Phone the tax credit department and tell them you are appealing the tax credit overpayment . This will stop anyrecovery payments untill the appeal is finished. 3) write down dates you phoned as all these are recorded and stored for both training and legal reasons. 4) Try and get some help via legal help or even contacting your MP as they do have some power to push this through. I agree with one of the posters do not give them you income and outgoings over the phone. When you write it down make sure you put every single outgoing down . e.g kids school meals shoes money for educational trips etc. Iam hope this helps and please dont take what I have said as an insult. I Have been through the same process and they will try and use any excuse not to squash the ovepayment and there strongest legal option is the award notices and ignorance for not reading them correctly. I hope you get this sorted as I beleive people just dont understand the notices correctly as they can be confusing.

It does happen and it does take time The problem is could be due to a dramatic change in income for example you earned around 13k for the last three years and this tax year you dropped to 7k or 8k this year. There are two main busy periods in the year April - July and Sept - end of January. During these periods ity can be hard to get in contact with tax credits help line and when there are unforseen errors on the system and main tax credits processing department needs to action any faults , it can take some time. If you phone to make a change or an update on the tax credit help line it takes the system normally 48 hours to update and proccess. Now with your problem they need to contact the main office via electronic forms. Your form will be in a que to be seen which could take upto 7 days when busy , it then may take anything upto 24 - 48 hours to correct the problem or to contact you if they need any information. It is then corrected on the sytem and updated and this process again takes upto 48 hours for the system to calculate and finalise your award and then to send out a finalised form. If you are worried I would keep contacting them every 48 hours. If nothing is done ask to speak to the team manager and put your concerns to them about meeting teh deadline and to make sure you have not been underpaid or overpaid. Ask for a ring back as this may get you a call from the main tax credit office. I hope this helps. please excuse my spelling or grammer unfortunately my brain has problems processing words etc but I am rather smart and have had first hand experience with the tax credit problems etc

Wow this sound so familiar about a friend of mine who worked in a similar place. What I find so annoying is that for such a small problem they have esculated this to a point that is not needed. First off I hope everything goes well for you today. If they decide to say they were wrong I would take things forward and point out how much stress and embarresment this has caused and take them to a tribunal for victimisation and servere depression and stress. If they decide that you have caused gross misconduct and decide on a harsh punishment I would again take them to a tribunal for unfair dismissal and servere stress. For such a small thing the tribunal will probably be in your favour as no proof and no prosicution was made due to the fact they could prove nothing and they will probably say it has been a waste of time and resources. I must stress this is of my own oppinion and my friends case was his own, There has been excellent advice on this post for you and I hope you have taken all of the advice into consideration. I do hope everything works out for you.

If she has her p60s tell her to phone her tax office to make sure all her national insurance was paid upto date from the employer as to me it sounds as though they could be missing. This is not a definitive answer its just something to check to make sure all is above board from her previous employer.

Main problem in the tax credit department is the ammount of claims, ammendments, problems coming into the department. The next issue is the system error that is causing the error. Even if the tax office inputted the data again the same error would acurr as the error is not specific to the award. From what I understand is that yes you are entitled to a payment which the notice says but the payment schedule has not appeared on the system unfortunatly this does happen and yes it can take some time to resolve. The only reason I ask you to complain again and to see your MP is due to the fact things do progress a little faster when MP`s get involved. I would continue to ring and complain every 5 - 7 days and request for a ring back , this is not a standard ring back as it is from someone from the actual tax credit department.

HI Ok first off lets put in perspective, when you phone a tax credit help line they are only first line people customer service. They only input information and ammend but cannot make any decisions. 99% of the time yes they know what the problem is but they can not do anything because they have no authority and infact can not change problems that are computer generated. The only way they can fix this is by contacting the actual tax credit department (this is the actual place claims are recieved inputted and decisions made etc. Now looking at what you have said it looks like you disability element has been removed or is not being seen by the system. If you think you are not getting any place and wish to know why it is taken so long I would contact them and request to put a complaint forward and wish to have a ring back to explain the situation. Also if you get no place with that contact your MP and explain the situation and ask him to look into it . After you have done that contact tax credit helpline and complain again and tell them your MP is now involved.

I do know that companies in the UK must pay council tax on a property that is no longer used. If I remember correctly one company was paying £300,000 a year on the big derelict building hey owned. They solved this issue by destroying the building and flattening the land. Dunno if this will help dont even know if in scotland the same law applies.

Its very scary to think how wrong a report can be. I remember going for a medical and I explained my situation and the problems I have walking after a short time. I was refused and asked for the medical report and when reading It stated I could walk over 900 yards without any problem or discomfort even though i stated i could only walk very little before i was in servere pain and weakness of my legs. I then read on and a little ways through the report it said that I had walking issues and that i needed supervision and assistance as I was unable to walk very far and this was the medical advisor that wrote this and it was his oppinion. Even though I was and still am on morphine as with a few other strong meds. I took it to a tribunal and won my case.

Well that is up to you if you wish to disagree as it is a risk. If you think its wrong the I would appeal. The decision makers are not medical people and have weired reasons. When I was little and I had muscle spasms constantly and wore a full lengh metal body brace from the age of 3 and upto 10 years of age and with a few other disabilities (excuse my poor spelling). When my parents applied for DLA we were refuse because they said I was just like any other kid and I was able to cross a main road at the age of 7 by my self.... now think my brace was from my neck all the way to my hips , I couldnt turn my head left or right are my hips I had to turn my whole body even so who in the right mind would let there kid cross the road by them self. I would seek advice maybe from local welfare advisor to see if they could help with the appeal. Hope this helps.

Problem with overpayments is proving you were not aware of the mistake , every year you are sent a end of year report when you complete your decleration you are asked to check that decleration to make sure all the information was correct earnings etc they will also ask you to make sure your next years expected earnings and information to be correct and if it is not to contact them. If you claim you did not see this on the forms because you didnt read it correctly or were confused they wont take that as an excuse. If you think you were not aware and recived no documentation to show what income they had for you and you were lead to belive the money was yours you can appeal this decision. I would phone them up and request a COP 21 it think it is to appeal the overpayment. Your best bet is to try and find some advise on the matter probably down the legal route best bet is some legal guy who has has knowledge of benefits.

Hi I will do my best to answer some of the questions as its been a few years since i worked within the tax credit department. Tax years start from april so your 08/09 figures will have been taken into count, what they will want is your expected joint income from 2009 to 2010 Your wife will need to add her full pay minus her smp entitlement of £100 a week upto the date it drops , you then need to esitimate how much she will earn from that date untill the next financial year . Best way to do this is add up her total taxable pay upto 9th nov minus any SMP deductions she is entitled to. Her total taxable pay to date will be shown on her wage slip. Your next step is to calculate how much taxable pay she will earn per month as of nov 9th then multiply that by how many remaining months are left on your award e.g nov till 1st of april say. I would take that untill end of march so about 5 months. £8000 divide that by 12 = £666 a month you then multiply that by 5, 5 x 666 = £3333 will est be earned for those 5 months left on your 2009/2010 award. SO what you will need is the £19500 taxable pay to date as of 9th of Nov. you then add that figure to the estimated income she will earn from 9th Nov untill April 2010. Again minus any smp entitlement. so your £20,000 plus your other halfs £11908 = £31908 I hope this helps for part of your question as I couldnt honestly say what the other questions would be due to the changes they have implimented since i have been there. However yes your award will increase with an extra child and the lower income. Please dont take my figures for granted untill she receives Her final wage with her full pay on.

From what you have said you have done everything correctly. The intiview is probably due to the fact someone has said you were living withsomeone while claiming for just you. No police officer can ask for information of be given any information unless a court has told them to do so. If you have proof you were not living with anyone as a cival partnership you should have no worries and as you have informed them correctly at every point you should have no problems in this interview. I am sure someone on this forum will come along and answer your questions with better understanding of how DWP handle these cases. Hope all goes well.

As he is still employed with them they can not force him to pay the entire ammount in full. The first payment he got he should not have to pay back as he was under the impression those payments were correct and was told so. For the further payment as he was aware there was something wrong and contacted the correct people to inform them of this he is therfore obliged to pay that money back at a rate that suits him and his financial obligations etc I would advise him to put a written grievance into HR explaining why he shouldnt have to pay the first payment back and explain he does not think he is obliged to pay back the others in full but would be willing to on a monthly payment plan. I would advise you to seek some free legal advice as government agancies are very persistant that you pay back any public money.

it sounds like a case of unfair dismissal but again you should seek legals advice. On the case of facebook was the alligations true ? Even if this was the case no formal written warnin was given. I would speak to a legal expert asap and also you should if you wish to go down the unfair dismissal route ,to put a emplyment tribunal form into teh courts as soon as possible before you run out of time to do anything.

It looks like DLA care component higher rate has not been added to your tax credit award if this is the case ring them up and tell them who is receiving it and it should increase your payments.

They can backdate the money to the original application date (the first date you requested the pack). You can try and claim money back previous to that date but you need a good reason to why they should do this. Tax credit doesnt automaticly entitle you to housing benefit etc. I would advise you to see a welfare rights officer first and then claim housing benefit. If you dont lie and put down the truth and what you earn and from where they will eaither say yes or no. Hope this is of help.

While on income support and recieving tax credit most thresholds are not applied. Once you no longer recive income support all the thresholds apply and if your income is above a certain ammount you will no longer recieve working tax credit. In your post it is not clear how you were claiming. Was it a joint claim ? or were you claiming as individuals. If you claimed as individuals and you mentioned you had a partner on the phone, this is an automatic suspension until they investigate. If you are struggling to pay the bills you can claim hardship payments and to do this you need to go to your local HMRC office which has a tax credit advisor and you will need to prove to them that you can not live on the current money.

many thanks for the replys guys Currently I am on DLA mobilityonly higher rate which too me almost a rear to get as I appealed and went to a indipendant appeals board. My main fear is loosing my benefit because i want to try and better my self and when reading papers watching news etc about how the government are biting down of benefits does not help. I will have a good look at things and make a decision on what I want to do. Again many thanks for the advice guys.

Hi I am on higher rate long term, plus age addition. I find it annoying that the money I pay towards my food and electricity etc is not counted due to the fact it my parents.

Hi there . If you quit due to pressure from employer this counts a constructive dismissal, you employer is made you think you need to quit. I my self have been in a situation where I needed to look into employment law and constructive dismissal is one of the big no no`s.

Hi all hope someone can help. First off I live with my parents due to severe health problems that have lasted several years. I had spinal cord problems due to my congenital disabilities and have recently been retired on ill health from work at the age of 29. While my recovery has been very slow since a operation to stop the progression of my problem I have been on incapacity Benefit and DLA mobility higher rate for some time. My first question is can I study from home via OU as I am unable to attent any college or UNI due to my severe pain etc and most of my learning will be lying or sitting comfortably when possible. I will be applying for financial assistance due to such low income. If I am allowed do I need to inform the jobcenter ? Reason I wish to do this is just incase I do recover to a degree where I can return to work that I have an advantage to apply for a more suitable job. My next question NHS prescriptions. I have on countless times applied for free prescriptions and dental help due to my medications costing quite alot. At teh moment I have a prepaid card as i have been refused free prescriptions due t the fact they say my incapacity Benefit is more than enough to live on and pay for prescriptions and dental treatment. It very scary to try and ask the DWP if i can do certain things etc as iam scared they will decide to say iam fit for work and force me to get a job that at present I would not be able to do without further causing me injury and pushing my recovery back. I would appreciate any help or infor anyone could give me and I must say this site is a god send and I wish I knew about it earlier.