DMBM665855 - CCP: The defendant’s response to the claim: Defences in tax credit overpayment cases
Background
Tax credit overpayments do not come within the scope of the practice direction to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR PD7D) (see DMBM665800). That guidance points you to making an application for summary judgment for cases where CPR PD7D does not apply, but you should not do so for tax credit overpayment cases unless the court specifically order you to do so.
Court action
Where a defence is received, the court will
- send you an allocation questionnaire for completion and a copy of the defence at the same time and
- allocate the case to a ‘track’, according to the value of the case (see below).
Value of case |
Allocated to |
Court issues |
up to and including £5,000 |
small claims track |
form N149 or form N150 |
Over £5,000 but not more than £15,000 |
fast track |
form N150 |
Over £15,000 |
multi track |
form N150 |
DPO action
You should complete the allocation questionnaire and attach your reply to the defence to it, together with certificates of debt and file all the documents with the court at the same time. In your reply to the defence you should ask for any amount admitted to be paid. You should ensure that you serve the defendant with a complete set of the documents filed with the court.
Fees
According to the value of the case a fee is sometimes payable on filing the questionnaire. Details of the fee to be paid is shown in the following table
Value |
Fee |
£1,500 or less |
Nil |
Exceeds £1,500 but not £5,000 |
£35 |
Over £5,000 |
£200 |
Court hearing
The court will set the case down for a hearing which you should attend, taking a copy of the reply to the defence and certificates of debt with you and prove your case. You should ask for any allocation fee that has been paid to be included in the judgment. However, you should bear in mind that under the track procedures, the district judge is more likely to make an order for the exchange of witness statements and to set another hearing date than to dispose of the case (enter judgment) at the first hearing.
If the district judge does not agree to include the allocation fee in the judgment, you should
- accept the decision and
- write off the fee.
Small claims track
If the party who paid the hearing fee notifies the court at least 7 days before the hearing that the claim has been settled or discontinued, the hearing fee will be refunded in full.
