has anyone had any recent decisions or info re current/ new HMRC policy about how CTC 'overpayments' will be treated where they arise from delay in notifying that a partner left the household?

are they allowing it to be offset againt the fact that entitlement would in any event remain the same or are they still insisting on recovering?

many thanks
Caroline

they're still insisting on recovery. i suspect UK Ltd. is broke, and robbing the poor is the prince john model of paying for the crusades and stuff. officially, from what i can make out, the resources implications of offsets was HMRC's primary, probably only consideration. ( i think that means the computer can't do it and if the computer can't do, end of story).
looks like JR or nothing to me...

Mon 09-Jun-08 04:30 PM by shawn

(Edited to shorten link)

Hi,


You find this link to the 5th Report - Session 2006-2007: Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 10(4) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 useful see Ch3


Mitch

I wrote to the Minister on behalf of a consortium of welfare rights bodies towards the end of last year asking her to take action to re-instate offsetting.

At the last tax credits consultation group, to which she came, I reminded her we were still awaiting some action. It is still "under consideration".

We will be seeing her again in the next month and will press the case once more. We, and others, are also considering legal action as this type of overpayment recovery is in effect a penalty.

The wheels grind slow....but they still grind.

Fri 27-Jun-08 10:22 AM by ken

Edited to shorten link

Hi john (take a deap breath and sigh)
I am a bit confused about what seems to be conflicting existence of offsetting. John, you say above you are asking about re-instating offsetting, and CPAG TC newsletter April 08 is asking for people (couples becoming single...) who have been refused offsetting. Yet, there is other info that makes it look like offsetting is possible - e.g. Ombudsman report:

"Tax credits: Getting it wrong?" (Chapter 3 Overpayments and their recovery. Developments since June 2005) where the ombudsman said:
"3.21 I am therefore pleased to note that HMRC changed their policy in May 2007 in relation to this issue. I understand that now, where it comes to light that a claim was mistakenly made in the wrong capacity at the outset (as in the above case example), the amount of tax credit to which the customer would have been entitled, had they claimed in the correct capacity, will automatically be offset against any recoverable overpayment for the same period."

And in the HMRC compliance manual

there's plenty of examples where they do offset e.g. paras CCM15605, CCM15610,

To arrive at your settlement figure you need to calculate –
a.the gross overpayment – see CCM15650
b.the notional entitlement – see below
c.the net overpayment which is the gross overpayment in (a) less the notional entitlement in (b).

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/ccmmanual/index.htm

Clive

Taking a deep breath; only because of the general complexity and injustice of it all.

It is a matter of when the mistake was made. If it was at the time of your original claim.....you thought you were a couple but you weren't.......then the offsetting may be put forward providing it was a ‘genuine error’

But if you are a distraught single mum who forgot that she had to notify HMRC that her ex had left her and continued to get paid as if she was a couple, well that is completely different. No offset for you.

The supposed logic in this is, if we allowed set off when there is a proper notification of change of circumstance rule, then people in the know wouldn't bother to notify and would just rely on a retrospective adjustment to the correct basis.

There is some merit in that thought,but it merely creates a grossly unfair penalty, where there are already penalty provisions for failing to notify relevant change.

HMRC information on circumstance change reporting has been deficient at various times and if someone was misled there might be a case for showing official error.