If you have a Tax Credit court case pending against you, click on Stopping Court Cases for emergency steps to get the court case stopped!

Suggested Steps to Disputing an Overpayment Bill

The official documentation to this process is repetitive and not very forthcoming. In an attempt to bring some transparency to disputing overpayment bills, we have pieced together 7 steps as the official route through the process, which you can get to by clicking the menu buttons on the left.

Although this list seems long, it’s not that you have to do everything at once. Most of it is waiting for one process to finish before another one can start. Remember that we are on your side and don’t expect Jo(e) Public to understand a hugely flawed system when those in charge of it do not. So even if your case does not involve massive errors on their part, if you did not understand what was happening to your Award then you have a right to dispute being made responsible for the overpayment.

Please note that there is not actually a very well defined route through this process.  Sometimes you may be bounced back and forth, out of order, between the likes of the Adjudicator and your MP. As you can see the whole process is very long, but during that time they cannot (read "should not"; but you can get it stopped if they try) recover money, add fees or summons you to court. I have not yet dealt with anyone who has gone through ALL of the steps and still had to repay. This process has so far taken us over 2 years! We (TCC) hope to have won reform of the system before too long, so one aim should be to string this process out and avoid repayment long enough to get the reform and amnesty in place.

There are also other organisations giving information and guidance about Tax Credit Overpayments. Click on the Dispute - Other Orgs. button to read some of their advice.

The Central Office of Information website, Directgov, has a page on "How to Complain to HMRC". Unfortunately, like most of the Government, they're not in the real world - so, once you've finished laughing, carry on with our suggested steps. There is some useful information there, though, should you wish to use it.

A few tips for you;

• When writing dispute or case history letters, aim to get them to give us the answers to what happened where, even if only refusal comes out at that stage , because then we can use that information for the next stage. Get them doing the leg work not us.

• Deadlines issued by HMRC are deadlines to respond not repay.

• The Government Treasury is responsible for HMRC who run TCO.

• Throughout all this, keep full records of any contact with the Tax Credit Office; dates, times and content of telephone calls, copies of letters etc.

• Keep a record, with receipts if possible, of all expenses incurred by you during your dispute. i.e. stationery and postage (always use Recorded Delivery), printer ink, telephone calls, travelling expenses to Tax Office, Citizens Advice Bureau etc. because you are entitled to be reimbursed for these costs.

Please note that we are not tax professionals and are working on a voluntary basis, unpaid, in our ‘free time’. Between us, we have a lot of experience and knowledge in this area, gained over the last few years of supporting victims and helping them fight for justice and their rights. But legislation, operating practice and individual cases change all the time. While we aim to be professional and accurate at all times, please understand the circumstances we are working under, and accept our support, guidance and information in the sprit it is offered; goodwill and camaraderie.

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