HMRC letter claim overpayments from nearly 17yrs ago????

[Orchid47]

Just received a letter from HMRC today claiming I owe them £6900 from tax credits overpayments dating back to 2004, 2008 and 2009!!!

 

How can this be soooo long ago?

 

How am I to remember back this far and I certainly wont have records this far back

 

How can this have gone un-noticed for so long?

 

I haven't had any Tax Credits for years

 

What do I do?

 

Thank you

 

[dx100uk]

pop up onto the HMRC website

search for and fill out their SAR.

 

they MUST hold the DATA to prove you owe this not just some note (which most are) from some agency worker that they farmed out the admin work too stating they think you owe this and that.

 

 

[Orchid47]

ok, thank you, will do 

[London1971]

Good morning.

 

Ahh good  old Tax Credit overpayments, the gift that keeps on giving. It's almost guaranteed that if you claimed Tax Credits at some point in your life a charming little letter will pop through your door with a random national lottery size amount of money that you owe them, and it's always from many years ago. It's so thoughtful of them to send out huge demands during the most severe economic crisis of the last 100 years.

 

Nothing is going to happen quickly here, your SAR , when it arrives is going to be a huge box full of screen shots, call transcripts, what they assume your earnings were at the time.  It's very common for them to make mistakes, for example on mine within 5 minutes I noticed that they had my salary down as far higher than it was, which immediately took what I owed them down by £1200.

 

Boring summary as to why this happens,  The system is so complicated, that somebody always makes a mistake, either them or the Claimant, most people don't notice because the money is clawed back from their actual tax credit payments as  a tiny percentage that's barely noticeable. This works great until you suddenly start earning too much money and Tax Credits stop, then boom You owe us X thousand!  Unfortunately, being HMRC, and being utter rubbish sometimes that 'boom takes 15 years to arrive on your doorstep.

 

Ultimately, you may owe them something, in the end, they will talk like they are going to send the heavy mob in to repossess everything, reality is there are people all over the country paying them £20 per month or at some point in the future if you claim Universal Credit they might take a few quid a month off that. If you are really lucky they will just give it to a powerless DCA.

 

Once you have analysed your SAR, you may have grounds to appeal,  its also worth Googling Tax Credits COP 26 and reading carefully several times, perhaps some of the rules in there apply to you and may also be grounds for appeal. There are lots of mitigating factors that could even get the whole thing written off. Rest assured you can come back to this thread and ask anything,  I'll always respond and am very knowledgeable about this subject,

 

Keep us posted

 

 

 

 

[Orchid47]

Thank you so much for your response. Do I need to reply to their letter as I presume the SAR may take weeks to come from them?
How can I find out what I earned back in 2004?

 

I was self employed but from memory I didn't pay myself a wage because I didnt have the funds - hence why I needed Tax Credits

[London1971]

No need to reply to their letter, nothing is going to happen very quickly here, just keep an eye out for anything else they might send. HMRC are weird like that, you might not receive another reminder letter for a week or a year, who knows. At the moment don't speak to anybody by phone, they are like a cheap box of chocolates at the call centre, mostly nasty but occasionally you find a really nice one. Not worth the risk!

 

Once you receive the SAR you will probably be able to see if it looks right, what they have down as your earnings, have a good look through, and see if you have grounds to appeal. For example if they had you down at £40k per year income in 2008, and I wouldn't be surprised. 

 

Run anything else you receive from them past this thread.

[Orchid47]

Ok, will do. Thank you