HMRC
still want £416 in overpaid tax credits. I have asked them
repeatedly to explain to my why they overpaid me- I eventually found
out from Citizen's Advice.
In
order to be awarded Working Tax Credits, you need to be working 30
hours per week- unless you are in receipt of the Daily Living
component of either DLA or PIP. Under DLA I was receiving both Daily
Living and Mobility, so despite only working 22.5 hours, I was still
eligible for WTC. I had applied for WTC a long time before receiving
DLA- 2008, but I was denied due to working too few hours. Nobody
explained the above to me until late 2010, though, even when Pure
Innovations took over the Work Choice scheme and I started to get
what I was entitled to.
My
DLA was stopped in December 16, in preparation for the unconfirmed
move over to PIP. I applied for PIP. During this fiasco, HMRC
continued to pay me WTC. I assumed that there was no problem with
this as the two were separate benefits.
Eventually,
after PIP was awarded, my Working Tax Credits were stopped, and I
assumed this was because they were about to move me over to Universal
Credit. It was not.
At
the same time, HMRC claimed I owed them £416 in overpaid tax
credits. They did not explain this. I phoned them numerous times to
give me a reason for this demand, and each operative I spoke to told
me my tax credits were 'under review.'
Months
later, similar letters came through- I still owed them the money and
I still couldn't get back onto Tax Credits. No explanation.
Eventually
I contacted Welfare Rights. It emerged that, because I was not moved
over from DLA to PIP automatically, that break signified a change in
circumstances and my WTC were due to be stopped. Some weeks after I
was only awarded the Mobility component, WTC payments eventually
stopped. This took some time for HMRC to realise THEIR mistake,
though, so they sent me a letter demanding this money without
explaining the above.
Rather
than paying the money, I've spent my time trying to get to the bottom
of this and asking my employer for more hours. (I'm waiting to hear
back from HR.)
HMRC
are still paying me a monthly block payment of £88, the weekly £22
Mobility PIP component. This, plus my part-time wage, isn't enough to
get by on. £416, my apparent debt, is about half of my monthly wage.
This
week I received a letter from Advantis Debt Collection Centre.
'This
is your opportunity to put things right,' it says. If you don't
contact us or pay what you owe now HM Revenue and Customs has
instructed us to pass your debt to debt collection agents for
recovery. Yours faithfully.'
Faithfully.
Hmm.
My
question to HMRC: What is the point in continually paying ME benefits
when, at the same time, and due to YOUR error, I owe YOU money? Why
not stop paying me until the debt is balanced, or deduct a certain
amount each month until the overpayment is rectified over a 12-month
period? Why blame me, a learning disabled man, for your financial
error? And how interesting that it takes so much effort to get these
benefits awarded- even when there's solid proof of a disability- but
you're so quick to start demanding the money back and threatening me
with BAILIFFS?!
Meanwhile,
I have asked my employer for additional hours. If I work over 25, I
can claim WTC as a normal applicant, regardless of disability. Now is
apparently the time, with the ongoing restructure, that it might
happen, if ever, but of course I have not heard back. I have also
asked Social Services for support in relation to finances, but,
again, probably due to being employed in a public sector desk job,
and because I speak and write eloquently, the idea that I might
genuinely need their support with this situation will most likely be
incomprehensible to them. They may think my application is some kind
of administrative error.
And
with the money the Tories have saved from cutting disabled people's
benefits, what is Mrs May doing? Mental health training in schools?
Providing homeless shelters? Rebuilding the country's hacked-down
police presence? Training more nurses? No: Syrian air strikes.
