hello and can anyone shed any light on this as i am confused!

Have a client receiving incapacity benefit who has told me he is in receipt of working tax credits despite not having worked for 3 years. Receives mobility component of dla - has a partner not working and 2 children. Surely he shouldn't be receiving WTC when not employed or retained in some capacity by employer? client says he has been advised all correct but i need clarification as i don't understand the logic and want to advise correctly. please help if you can

You can received WTC when in receipt of short term low rate incapacity benefit. When it goes up WTC stops. I have a client with same problem, WTC continued after IB went on to long term rate and she has an overpayment which i am challenging.

Check when IB changed and let client know that TO need to be informed which may result in o/p.

When he first went sick from work and told the TCO he would have remained entitled for the first 28 weeks of sickness - did he then contact them again and tell them that he was still sick at the end of the 28 weeks?

What about each annual declaration? Do his award notices state on them that he's working? Are they correct and if not has he told the TCO that they are not correct?

Was the partner working? If they were when did they stop and why?

As far as i'm aware if you or your partner cannot be classed as in remunerative work you should not be entitled to working tax credit.

Nicky

thank you for your posts - this is as i thought but can you believe it my colleague queried with inland revenue and was told client could be entitled to disability element of wtc despite not working. I am seriously concerned that inland revenue is advising in this way - wonder whether i can use a phone call (would it be recorded) as evidence because this is going to generate a huge overpayment that surely should not be recoverable in this case?

Whether the overpayment is going to be recoverable will very much depend on how your client has acted and how HMRC have acted.

I would certainly be asking for copies of the taped conversations between your client and the tax credit helpline - i'd do this now as they take so long to be generated.

I don't know if calls are taped on the adviers helpline and can only suggest that you ask but in the meantime keep very thorough notes of each contact with TCO and what they say.

thank you - will do!

I've had a similar case. Client rang TCO to advise on IB & was told WTC continued. Was not told it ended after 28 weeks, or that she should ring back at end of 28 weeks. So payments continued after 28 weeks. Client got annual renewal saying she was working; rang them & was told WTC to stop & also told that she shouldn't have to repay any overpayment if she hadn't been informed about the 28 week cut off!

We have challenged the overpayment decision, but no answer as yet (oh well, it's only 6 months since we wrote!).

Wouldn't you think that a halfway competent computer system would be able to generate a letter at the end of the 28 weeks to ask claimants whether they were still on IB?

Methinks that the cost of generating a letter falls on the Inland Revenue and the cost of overpayment falls largely on the claimant? Thank you all for your posts.