next person they rang said they can py it over 2 years! go figure, as the americans say

my daughter & partner are being asked to pay back around £4000 in a lump sum in 10 days. is there any way of spreading the payment? After months of saying it would come out of tax next year (by phone), the tax office now say its got to be a lump sum & suggest taking out a loan or paying be credit card! this is despite my daughter phoning the tax office several times because she didn't think she was due the money initially, but the tax office insisted they were right.