Tax Credits Compliance Letter

[MadHatter33]

Back in April I received a letter from the compliance operations team requesting details of my 3 children attending child care with one of my childminders between 2012 - 13 (2 x children are with 1 childminder and the other goes to another). I had forgotten to update HMRC that my two boys started attending another childminder in January 2012. I sent all the contracts of both providers along with payments made between April 2012 to April 2013 and also informed them which of my children would still be in childcare between April 2013 and April 2014.

 

When I went to collect my daughter from her childminder last week she informed me that she had been questioned on the phone vigorously regarding my three children, she informed them that she had previously had the boys but could not give the dates of the previous years as her accountant had all of her books. She was able to give them figures of 2012-13 for my daughter. Again she was asked whether the figure was for all three children and she reply "no just 1". My other childminder has yet to be contacted regarding the boys, however I have received a letter from my compliance officer who returned all my documents and stated that they will write back shortly regarding my tax credits claim.

 

What does this mean???? I am worried enough about the whole thing as it is and cannot sleep at night with worry. I was previously investigated in 2010 again regarding childcare which was sorted out and I had complied with everything that was asked of me, if fact they owed me money.

 

Will I have to pay them back because I did not notify them about a new childminder?

[EagerElephant]

The letter to say they will write shortly is just a standard letter - they send the originals back as quickly as possible but the actual assessing takes time.

 

I am not 100% sure what they will do about the new childminder - you normally only have 4 weeks to report a change, if you don't they won't accept the information unless it is in their favour.

 

The thing is you cannot change it now so stop worrying - the worst that will happen is you will have an Overpayment and have it deducted back out of your award.

[MadHatter33]

Thank you EagerElephant for your advice it was very much appreciated. I could still do without paying back all the money when I had actually paid for the childminder, but hay ho thats my own fault for not being more on the ball.