Child Tax Credits - Divorce Issue!!
Discussion
Sorry if this is posted in wrong board, i'm a little bit pissed off at the minute and wondered if i have any foot to stand on.
Moved out of (what is now) my ex wifes house in August 2009 and moved in with GF. Divorce came through in November 2009 after petiton was served on me in June 2009. The ex wife and i were living seperate lives for quite a long time whilst living under the same roof, as is quite common these days. For quite a while she was getting child tax credits for her son (note* not my child) which was a joint claim in mine and hers name, albeit i never saw a penny as you'd expect and the money was always paid into her own bank account. I got a letter in Jan 2010 about tax credits which reminded me that i should actually let HMRC know that we are now divorced.
I then have had various things through including a renewal pack which i was informed to fill in and send back. To cut the story short, HMRC are saying that as it was a joint claim paid for all of 2009/2010 then there will be an overpaid amount from April 2010 back to the date that we seperated. I will personally get a bill for 50% of what was paid for this period, as will the ex wife. She will then be able to retrospectively claim as a single claimant back to the date i have given, unless she of course has given a different date?!
So it looks like i am going to get landed with a bill for 50% of the tax credits paid June 2009 to April 2010, for money which i have never received, and she can then claim singularly for the same period which i guess means i have paid her the equivalent of 50% of the joint claim amount! This is bloody madness.
Call me naive but all i got was letters from HMRC which had my name on them albeit i never received any money from them (it was all paid to the ex wife) so i didn't give them much attention, and of course i didn't cast a thought about this until the 2009/2010 letter came through in May this year.
It's fair to say that me and the ex didn't see eye to eye so i would assume an email to her explaining that as she has had all the money (and will be able to reclaim probably more as a single claimant for the same period!) that she should pay back the full amount due, is not going to be something she agrees too, even though she knows damn well she's had all the money.
Is there anything i can do about this? It can be proved that she has had the money paid into her bank all the time, it can be proved we haven't lived in the same house since August 2009, but the way the woman at HMRC was talking this is irrelevant as i am simply liable (and will get billed) for 50% of the payments made to her from June 09 to April 2010.
She could of course try and get it backdated even further which means she could end up screwing me for even more money.
I'm at a loss, but sure this must have happened to other people??????
Cheers,
Baldy
Moved out of (what is now) my ex wifes house in August 2009 and moved in with GF. Divorce came through in November 2009 after petiton was served on me in June 2009. The ex wife and i were living seperate lives for quite a long time whilst living under the same roof, as is quite common these days. For quite a while she was getting child tax credits for her son (note* not my child) which was a joint claim in mine and hers name, albeit i never saw a penny as you'd expect and the money was always paid into her own bank account. I got a letter in Jan 2010 about tax credits which reminded me that i should actually let HMRC know that we are now divorced.
I then have had various things through including a renewal pack which i was informed to fill in and send back. To cut the story short, HMRC are saying that as it was a joint claim paid for all of 2009/2010 then there will be an overpaid amount from April 2010 back to the date that we seperated. I will personally get a bill for 50% of what was paid for this period, as will the ex wife. She will then be able to retrospectively claim as a single claimant back to the date i have given, unless she of course has given a different date?!
So it looks like i am going to get landed with a bill for 50% of the tax credits paid June 2009 to April 2010, for money which i have never received, and she can then claim singularly for the same period which i guess means i have paid her the equivalent of 50% of the joint claim amount! This is bloody madness.
Call me naive but all i got was letters from HMRC which had my name on them albeit i never received any money from them (it was all paid to the ex wife) so i didn't give them much attention, and of course i didn't cast a thought about this until the 2009/2010 letter came through in May this year.
It's fair to say that me and the ex didn't see eye to eye so i would assume an email to her explaining that as she has had all the money (and will be able to reclaim probably more as a single claimant for the same period!) that she should pay back the full amount due, is not going to be something she agrees too, even though she knows damn well she's had all the money.
Is there anything i can do about this? It can be proved that she has had the money paid into her bank all the time, it can be proved we haven't lived in the same house since August 2009, but the way the woman at HMRC was talking this is irrelevant as i am simply liable (and will get billed) for 50% of the payments made to her from June 09 to April 2010.
She could of course try and get it backdated even further which means she could end up screwing me for even more money.
I'm at a loss, but sure this must have happened to other people??????
Cheers,
Baldy
No helpful comments except to make the point that the Tax Credit system is woefully overcomplicated and keeping HMRC completely up to date with the personal circumstances of the claimants IN A TIMELY MANNER is absolutely essential to keeping the payments correct.
Even then, HMRC still often fail to act on the information they are provided with.
It looks to me that, in this situation, they are correct. They paid both of you too much based on the details you had originally provided them.
You notified them of the changes in your personal circumstances well after those changes had taken place.
They now want their money back.
Even then, HMRC still often fail to act on the information they are provided with.
It looks to me that, in this situation, they are correct. They paid both of you too much based on the details you had originally provided them.
You notified them of the changes in your personal circumstances well after those changes had taken place.
They now want their money back.
I do get where they are coming from, but the point is that they will happily pay her out a new (and most likely as a single claimant) higher amount for the amount of time she was classed as seperated from me, in this instance June 2009 to April 2010.
Can they not clearly see that the money from the previous (joint) claim was all paid to HER own personnal bank account anyway, so surely what they should do is say to her, ok, we paid you £x amount for the original claim into your your bank account, your single claim for the same period is £x (higher) amount, we've already paid you £x(original claim) INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, so we owe you (ex wife) £x amount?? How the hell can they ask me for money back that i have never been paid??? And surely they can see that if the divorce petition was dated June 2009 then what reason would she have had to give me any of that money received from HMRC since June 2009 anyway?
The woman at HMRC said i will have signed a contract saying that it was a joint claim but i can't see why i would have signed anything in 2009 (for 2009/2010 tax credits) as we'd well and truly seperated by then anyway? (albeit we still shared the house) The only thing going for me is that if the ex wife tried to be clever and tried to back date the seperation date even further for more financial gain, the only tangiable document with dates on is the divorce petition dated June 2009, which is when we decided to get the ball rolling with the divorce proceedings, i can't see how she can prove any further back beyond this date that we were officially seperated?
Any point seeking legal advice from anyone/anywhere? Should i contact HMRC and ask them to send me a copy of a document signed by me relating to 2009/2010??
Can they not clearly see that the money from the previous (joint) claim was all paid to HER own personnal bank account anyway, so surely what they should do is say to her, ok, we paid you £x amount for the original claim into your your bank account, your single claim for the same period is £x (higher) amount, we've already paid you £x(original claim) INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, so we owe you (ex wife) £x amount?? How the hell can they ask me for money back that i have never been paid??? And surely they can see that if the divorce petition was dated June 2009 then what reason would she have had to give me any of that money received from HMRC since June 2009 anyway?
The woman at HMRC said i will have signed a contract saying that it was a joint claim but i can't see why i would have signed anything in 2009 (for 2009/2010 tax credits) as we'd well and truly seperated by then anyway? (albeit we still shared the house) The only thing going for me is that if the ex wife tried to be clever and tried to back date the seperation date even further for more financial gain, the only tangiable document with dates on is the divorce petition dated June 2009, which is when we decided to get the ball rolling with the divorce proceedings, i can't see how she can prove any further back beyond this date that we were officially seperated?
Any point seeking legal advice from anyone/anywhere? Should i contact HMRC and ask them to send me a copy of a document signed by me relating to 2009/2010??
Edited by Baldy881 on Thursday 10th June 11:28
Edited by Baldy881 on Thursday 10th June 11:28
Baldy881 said:
I do get where they are coming from, but the point is that they will happily pay her out a new (and most likely as a single claimant) higher amount for the amount of time she was classed as seperated from me, in this instance June 2009 to April 2010.
Can they not clearly see that the money from the previous (joint) claim was all paid to HER own personnal bank account anyway, so surely what they should do is say to her, ok, we paid you £x amount for the original claim into your your bank account, your single claim for the same period is £x (higher) amount, we've already paid you £x(original claim) INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, so we owe you (ex wife) £x amount?? How the hell can they ask me for money back that i have never been paid??? And surely they can see that if the divorce petition was dated June 2009 then what reason would she have had to give me any of that money received from HMRC since June 2009 anyway?
The woman at HMRC said i will have signed a contract saying that it was a joint claim but i can't see why i would have signed anything in 2009 (for 2009/2010 tax credits) as we'd well and truly seperated by then anyway? (albeit we still shared the house) The only thing going for me is that if the ex wife tried to be clever and tried to back date the seperation date even further for more financial gain, the only tangiable document with dates on is the divorce petition dated June 2009, which is when we decided to get the ball rolling with the divorce proceedings, i can't see how she can prove any further back beyond this date that we were officially seperated?
Any point seeking legal advice from anyone/anywhere? Should i contact HMRC and ask them to send me a copy of a document signed by me relating to 2009/2010??
No harm in asking them for a copy of the document.Can they not clearly see that the money from the previous (joint) claim was all paid to HER own personnal bank account anyway, so surely what they should do is say to her, ok, we paid you £x amount for the original claim into your your bank account, your single claim for the same period is £x (higher) amount, we've already paid you £x(original claim) INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, so we owe you (ex wife) £x amount?? How the hell can they ask me for money back that i have never been paid??? And surely they can see that if the divorce petition was dated June 2009 then what reason would she have had to give me any of that money received from HMRC since June 2009 anyway?
The woman at HMRC said i will have signed a contract saying that it was a joint claim but i can't see why i would have signed anything in 2009 (for 2009/2010 tax credits) as we'd well and truly seperated by then anyway? (albeit we still shared the house) The only thing going for me is that if the ex wife tried to be clever and tried to back date the seperation date even further for more financial gain, the only tangiable document with dates on is the divorce petition dated June 2009, which is when we decided to get the ball rolling with the divorce proceedings, i can't see how she can prove any further back beyond this date that we were officially seperated?
Any point seeking legal advice from anyone/anywhere? Should i contact HMRC and ask them to send me a copy of a document signed by me relating to 2009/2010??
Edited by Baldy881 on Thursday 10th June 11:28
Edited by Baldy881 on Thursday 10th June 11:28
I don't suppose you made a copy?
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