A familiar story from the threads I've been reading, but ours has a twist that I hope someone can advise on. Over several years we claimed Working Tax Credits because my wife's full-time salary is low and for many years I was working on limited part time contracts or as a volunteer. Each year we submitted the forms to HMRC and they agreed we should receive WTC. At no point have we tried to withhold information or cheat the system and there had been no suggestion from them that we did - but they still claim to have overpaid us! In June/July 2013 we had two letters from 'Debt Management and Banking' at HMRC to advise that we had been paid too much tax credits. This was for period ended 2006, 2007 and 2009. We don't have any record of what we submitted in those years now. I called HMRC and the lady I spoke to agreed to put the matter on hold as I explained that I was chronically sick, on ESA and DLA, and that we were still receiving WTC due to our low joint income. The man I spoke to at HMRC today agreed that those notes were on the system but that they had carried out a review in June this year and passed the matter to debt collection. He says we should have had a letter, we've not had one. We would always respond to anything like that and get in touch to sort it out. I remember that I had made some notes last year, based on reading about WTC debt, where HMRC would write off such debt if a person was never going to work again through illness. I've no idea where those notes are now, possibly discarded after being on my desk for months. I've seen other threads where the advice is not to ring the DCA (I already knew that) and not to give them I&E information (I knew that too). What I can't do with is the stress of endless phone calls and letters, possibly callers to the door, while they attempt to make me pay. Yes, I know about sending them the 'do not call me' letter, but I'm already quite frantic about this and do not want to end up in hospital, or worse, through their activities. The many at HMRC refused to do anything other than insist I speak to the debt collectors. He seems to think that their one letter in June was the end of it, and as we didn't receive it we were blissfully unaware until Rossendales sent their letter. That's dated 24th July and gave us 7 days to pay in full, it only arrived on August 7th ! I have sent my MP the same information as above, to keep her informed of what's going on. In our situation we cannot afford to pay. We have told HMRC that previously and they accepted that, deferring the debt and saying I should contact them if I return to work. I explained last year that that was not going to be happening but she said she could not revoke it at that time. I was given the impression that they would contact me after 6 months to look at my circumstances again, but that didn't happen. We are still in receipt of WTC after sending in the annual claim form for 2014-5. That in itself should tell HMRC we cannot afford to repay ? Any suggestions ? My own thoughts would be to write to HMRC and go over the info above, the guy on the phone accepted what I said but told me that he could do nothing now it was in the hands of external debt collectors. I think that's rubbish.

Hello, I was abroad for 5 months (no paid work there) and hopefully I'm in a new job here in the UK starting probably in late April. I've checked on the HMRC Tax Credits website but the calculator doesn't go further the current tax year. Plus I'm asked if I am habitually resident in the UK. I am not sure if with the new rules I would still qualify for WTC, but I lived in UK before for many years. I had a meagre income last year (less than £5k including benefits) and I received about 1k in WTC. Is there a chance I can still get some WTC for the next year? Thank you.

I've been offered a temporary job which runs for three weeks. As it was more than 16 hours it meant I had to sign off. Due to travel costs I'm only taking £40 home a week. I booked an appointment at the job centre to discuss whether or not taking the job would be worthwhile. According to them I would be able to claim working tax credits. I phone up today and discovered that I can't claim them because I have to be working for a minimum of four weeks. I went to the job centre and told them that they had made a mistake about me being eligible for claiming working tax credits. I explained that by having this job I was over £30 a week worse off and that as I have next to no savings I'm unable to pay my rent for the month with this job. They told me that now that I have accepted the job I would be sanctioned if I chose to quit. They said that the decision was mine. I could either quit and be sanctioned for a longer period than I'd be working, or settle for £40 a week for the next three weeks. Is there anything I'm entitled to? If I don't pay my rent at the end of the month I will have nowhere to live. The only way I can see around this is if I sell my possessions.

I am self-employed and in the process of gathering information to prove my earnings/hours worked for the last tax year. Would really appreciate advice from someone who has experience of some/all of the following: Re breakdown of hours worked per week - Do I need to provide details of hours worked every day or just a total for each week? (I am also providing a diary of my work) Some weeks I worked over the minimum 30 hrs, sometimes less. Will this be averaged out over the month/year? Or do I need to have worked at least 30 hrs for every week? Re invoices - I have invoices for most of my jobs, however some were *ahem* cash in hand and I didn't produce invoices at the time but still need to declare the hours. Would it be risky to make invoices for some of these jobs now or would I potentially be getting myself into trouble if HMRC checks them out? (NB I would have to change the invoice numbers on some of the existing invoices to fit them in) Does HMRC accept electronic records? Thanks in advance for any help!

Like the title says, to claim working tax credits as sole trader, do I need to record the hours worked? I will be working 30 hours a week, will they need/ask for prove of this, so will I need to keep a record? I looked around the web for a couple of hours for the answer, but Google is not working well for me today

Hello, I have recently signed off JSA (yeah!) and started a temp job (with company not agency) that will hopefully bring me to Christmas. The contract says that they can only guarantee me 20 hours a week but after the first week we have learnt we will be working 45 hours a week till Xmas (no alterations have been made on the contract though). 1) When I signed off, the Jobcentre officer said I'd have to wait 4 weeks of full time work till I can claim Tax Credits. Is this correct or can I start claiming now, as long as I have the expectation that it will stay like this for the near future? 2) Regardless of how much I could get, is it worth the pain to claim WTC for this short period? Last time I claimed I had all sorts of problems and this forum is also full of horror stories. What are your feelings and your advice about this? Thank you and a nice weekend.

Hi fellow CAGgers. I'm pretty active over on the Public Transport Forum... (http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?161-Public-transport-(Trains-tubes-and-buses)) ...but this is the first time I've ventured into foreign parts Yes, I know what you're thinking... "He's only here now he needs something!" ...apologies Anyway, some advice, if possible? Today my better half received a NTP from HMR&C: 'We have sent you a notice showing an overpayment of tax credits for the period ending 05/04/2005'. £3,000+ for Working Tax Credits £700+ for Child Tax Credits (Actual total= £4,000+) She says she was informed around that period of owing about £11,000 (!!!) in overpayments, but she discussed in with the Revenue then, and was informed that if she stopped claiming from that point, it would be cancel itself out, or words to that effect. This would be reference to the fact that at the time, her two youngest children would have been 11 and 15 years old, so some years of entitlement could have still been due to her. So she cancelled and has received to TC's ever since. Of course this conversation took place on the phone, nothing written down or recorded in writing (apparently). I have suggested to her she immediately requests an exact breakdown of the monies owed, and the why's and when's- can she do that? The letter she received looks like page one of a phone bill: no detail at all. If anyone can offer me advice oon our next move, it woould be greatly appreciated. Links, case law, template letters too, if available? There's plenty more urgent cases than ours on this site, so as long as I'm pointed in the right direction, I should be able to work things out for myself. Thanks for your time and attention CAGgers... keep up the good work!