Overpayment Enquiry At Enquiry Centre (AG)

If a claimant contacts an Enquiry Centre to enquire about an adjustment or overpayment, consider steps 1 - 29 below. The guide is presented as follows

Initial action	Step 1
Determine reason for enquiry	Steps 2 - 5
Change of circumstances and / or correction	Steps 6 - 8
Manual cashcheque payment	Steps 9 - 13
Incorrect payment posting	Steps 14 - 15
Incorrect backdating	Steps 16 - 19
Unable to identify reason for overpayment	Step 20
Provide an explanation of overpayment	Steps 21 - 22
Determine if claimant is satisfied	Step 23
Advise claimant about remission procedure	Steps 24 - 27
Refer to TCO	Steps 28 - 29

Initial action

If a claimant contacts you in an Enquiry Centre with an enquiry about

Recovery of an overpayment on their award, by cross year recovery, go to step 2. For more information about cross year recovery follow the guidance in How Payments Are Profiled

A reduction in their regular tax credits payments because of an in year adjustment, go to step 2. For more information about in year recovery follow the guidance in How Payments Are Profiled

Or

They have received a cashcheque overpayment letter issued by the Tax Credit Office (TCO) Compliance section following the duplicate encashment of cashcheques, go to step 2

Determine reason for enquiry

2	You must give the claimant an explanation of how and why the Tax Credit Office (TCO) re-profiles an award when a change in their entitlement has occurred. Follow the guidance in How Payments Are Profiled. If the claimant is Happy with your explanation and understands the reason for the adjustment or overpayment Use Function MAINTAIN HOUSEHOLD NOTES to record the following message ‘TCMZ Claimant has accepted explanation of overpayment’ Notes: You must follow the guidance in How To Correctly Complete Application And Household Notes when you record the note And also Follow the guidance in Maintain Household Notes Then Take no further action Still unsure as to what the adjustment or overpayment relates to, go to step 3 Unhappy with the overpayment letter they have received from Compliance section, use Function MAINTAIN HOUSEHOLD NOTES Obtain the compliance officer details and advise the claimant to contact the Compliance Section on the number provided Note: If household notes only shows a five digit extension number, insert ‘01772 2’ before giving the extension number If there are no contact details in Household Notes present you should ask the claimant to contact the person who sent them the letter Note: All compliance letters give the compliance officer’s name and direct dial telephone number
3	Establish the reason for the adjustment or overpayment. To do this explain to the claimant that the overpayment may have occurred because there has been A change of circumstances which has reduced their payment A delay in notification of a change to the award A manual cashcheque payment made in addition to the normal payments which has now been taken into account A correction to the information held on their claim An extra payment or payments made automatically to them Or A change of circumstances where the wrong date was used, this could be because a change was backdated incorrectly Note: You must inform the claimant that there may be other reasons for the overpayment but the above reasons are the ones you can check now Go to step 4
4	If the claimant Identifies the overpayment is because of a Change of circumstances, go to step 6 Correction to their claim, go to step 6 Manual cashcheque payment, go to step 9 Payment that has been posted incorrectly on the computer, go to step 14 Change of circumstances backdated incorrectly, go to step 16 Cannot provide information to determine the overpayment reason, go to step 5
5	Explain to the claimant you will try to identify the reason for overpayment and work through the reasons that you can check at present, go to step 6

Change of circumstances and / or correction

Use Function VIEW AWARD to compare the elements on the claimant’s latest award version against the elements in the previous award version

Enter the claimant details on the Key Entry Details screen and tick the Latest checkbox

Note: If you receive an error message informing you that you are denied access to details for that claimant, follow the guidance in Unauthorised Access To A Claim

Click on the [OK] button, and in the Award Summary screen

Click on the [View Calculations] button

Click on the [View Elements] button

Make a note of the elements that are currently in payment to the claimant

Click the [Cancel] button three times to return to the key entry screen

Click on the All checkbox

Click on the [OK] button, and in the Select Award screen

Select the previous award version from the one you have just viewed

Click on the [View Calculation] button

Click on the [View Elements] button

Compare the details of the previous award version against the new award version

Then

Go to step 7

If you

Identify a difference between the elements in payment on the latest award, and the elements in payment on the previous award, a change or correction has occurred, go to step 21

Cannot identify a change or correction, check to see if the payments have been reduced because the claimant’s net entitlement has been reduced

Click on the [View Taper Calcs] button in the View Calculation screen

Compare the entitlements from the latest award to the previous award

Note: From this you can identify which area of their award has been affected by any change or correction

Then

Go to step 8

If you

Identify a change or correction, go to step 21

Cannot identify a change or correction, go to step 9

Manual cashcheque payment

9	Use Function VIEW HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT to establish if the issue of a manual cashcheque has resulted in an overpayment of tax credits Complete the Key Entry Details screen Note: If you receive an error message informing you that you are denied access to details for that claimant, follow the guidance in Unauthorised Access To A Claim Tick the All checkbox Tick the Postings checkbox Click on the [OK] button, go to step 10
10	In the View Award Summary screen Highlight the award end date for 05/04/2004, to review the year 2003 / 04 Click on the [OK] button Go to step 11
11	In the View Award Period Postings screen check to see if a manual cashcheque payment has been made. This will be shown as one of the following Posting Types MGPC for manual cashcheques for CTC MGPW for manual cashcheques for WTC MGPM for multiple cashcheques Go to step 12
12	If a manual cashcheque payment Has been made check to see if an amendment has been made. These amendments can be identified by the following Posting Types AMDC for an amended CTC award AMDW for an amended WTC award Then Go to step 13 Has not been made Click on the [Cancel] button Repeat the process for each tax year in the View Award Summary screen Then Go to step 13
13	If you determine No manual payment has been made or has been made but no amendment to the award has followed, go to step 14 There has been an amendment to the award after a manual payment has been made, the claimant payments will have reduced, go to step 21

Incorrect payment posting

Use Function MAINTAIN HOUSEHOLD NOTES to identify if the claimant has received one or more payment that they were not entitled to due to computer error

Go to step 15

If there is

A message in the notes box stating a ‘Postings correction’ has been made, go to step 21

No message relating to a ‘Postings correction’ go to step 16

Incorrect backdating

16	Use Function VIEW AWARD to identify if a claim has been incorrectly backdated when it was captured and has since been corrected, resulting in an overpayment Complete the Key Entry Details screen Note: If you receive an error message informing you that you are denied access to details for that claimant, follow the guidance in Unauthorised Access To A Claim Tick the All checkbox Click on the [OK] button Go to step 17
17	In the Select Award screen Highlight the earliest entry Click on the [OK] button Go to step 18
18	In the Award Summary screen Click on the [View Calculation] button Click on the [View Elements] button Check to see if you can identify a change of circumstances Then Go to step 19
19	If you determine Incorrect backdating has not occurred, go to step 20 Incorrect backdating has occurred, go to step 21

Unable to identify reason for overpayment

20	If you are unable to identify the reason for overpayment tell the claimant I have been unable to identify the reason for the over payment recovery at this time. I can refer your details to the Tax Credit Office to provide an explanation of why you have an overpayment to recover Go to step 28

Provide an explanation of overpayment

If you have identified the reason for the overpayment, give the claimant the appropriate explanation from the list below

We are recovering an overpayment that is due because there has been

A change of circumstances and / or a correction on your award. Making this change / correction has meant that an overpayment has arisen

A manual payment made to you has been taken into account. This has resulted in an overpayment

One or more payments issued to you due to a computer error, which you were not entitled to. This has meant that there is an overpayment on your award

Or

A change of circumstances that you informed me about that has been recorded on the wrong date. This means we have paid you for a period that we should not have done, which has resulted in an overpayment

Then

Go to step 22

Advise the claimant of all the following steps you may take

When these changes are made to your claim we will always try to adjust your payments so we will only pay you what you are entitled to

This means that your payments will increase or decrease to take account of any changes at the time the calculation was made

If we have already paid you more than your entitlement for the whole year this may mean that we stop making payments to you

If there is any overpayment outstanding at the end of your current award, we will recover it from future awards you may be entitled to

If you are no longer entitled to tax credits we will aim to recover the overpayment directly from you. How we do this is detailed in our Code of Practice 26 ‘What happens if we have paid you to much tax credits?’

Then

Go to step 23

Determine if claimant is satisfied

Ask the claimant, ‘Are you happy with the explanation of why we are recovering the overpayment’. If the claimant states they are

Happy with the explanation and accept the recovery action use Function MAINTAIN HOUSEHOLD NOTES to record the following message

‘TCMZ Claimant has accepted explanation of overpayment’

Then

Take no further action

Happy with the explanation but unhappy with the recovery action taken, go to step 24

Unhappy with the explanation and want more clarification, go to step 28

Advise claimant about remission procedure

24	If the claimant is unhappy with the decision to recover an overpayment, inform them You can have the decision reviewed again I will provide you with A Code of Practice (COP) 26 ‘ What happens if we have paid you too much tax credits?’ A form titled TC846 - Request to reconsider recovery of overpaid tax credits for you to fill in This is because The COP 26 explains how we treat overpayments and when we will look at the decision to recover them again. This will help you to complete the form We send the form because you must ask the TCO to look at the decision to recover tax credits, in writing Note: Inform the claimant that if there is more than one reason for the overpayment, they must only give details on the remission request form of the reasons they are disputing Go to step 25
25	Give the claimant a copy of the COP 26 and the form TC846 - Request to reconsider recovery of overpaid tax credits Note: The COP 26 can be printed from the Intranet if required Go to step 26
26	If the claimant Takes the COP 26 and the form away to complete Use Function MAINTAIN HOUSEHOLD NOTES and enter the following message ‘COP 26 and Request to reconsider recovery form given to claimant to complete and send to TCO’ Notes: You must follow the guidance in How To Correctly Complete Application And Household Notes when you record the note And also Follow the guidance in Maintain Household Notes Take no further action Completes the ‘Request to reconsider recovery’ form at the Enquiry Centre, go to step 27 Note: Inform the claimant that if there is more than one reason for the overpayment, they must only give details on the ‘Request to reconsider recovery’ form of the reasons they are disputing
27	Send the paperwork to the TCO, with ‘Overpayments Team’ clearly marked in red on the front of the paper (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

Refer to TCO

If you have been unable to identify the reason for overpayment or the claimant is not happy with your explanation and wants clarification from the TCO, inform the claimant you will refer the case to the TCO

Note: TCO will investigate the reason for overpayment and provide the claimant with an explanation in writing. They will also send the claimant a COP 26 and ‘Request to reconsider recovery’ form to enable the claimant to ask for the decision to recover the overpayment to be looked at again if they wish

Make the referral on form IREC referral to TCO for explanation of the reason for recovery

Send the form through Taxpost to the appropriate office

(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

Go to step 29

Inform the claimant that TCO will provide them with an explanation as soon as possible. This may take up to 10 - 15 working days

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