In this section:
How to dispute a tax credits overpayment
If we've paid you too much tax credit, we may ask you to pay it back. If we made a mistake or gave you incorrect advice, you can dispute our decision. We may then decide to write off some or all of the overpayment.
Disputing an overpayment
To dispute your overpayment you can fill in and send back to us form TC846.
You can either download form TC846 from our website or ask the Tax Credit Helpline to send you a copy.
Go to Form TC846 Tax Credits Overpayment (PDF 250K)
Or you can write to us instead, but in your letter you’ll need to give us all your details and tell us why you think you shouldn’t have to pay back your overpayment.
What happens next?
Once we’ve received your form or letter, we'll write to tell you:
- that we'll stop recovering the overpayment until we've finished looking at the details
- what'll happen next
How we make our decision
We make the decision based on whether you have met certain responsibilities, and whether we have too.
We check that we:
- put the right information on your award notice based on the information you gave us
- correctly worked out and paid you the right amount of tax credits based on the information you gave us
- recorded any information you gave us when reporting a change of circumstance and sent you an updated award notice within 30 days
- answered any queries on your award notice if you contacted us
- gave you the correct advice if you asked for us information
We check that you:
- gave us information that's correct, up to date and complete when claiming or renewing your tax credits
- reported any changes of circumstance in the timescales listed on the checklist
- checked your award notice and told us about any mistakes within one month of receiving it
- checked your payments matched the amounts shown on your award notice
We'll only write off the overpayment if we did not meet all of our responsibilities but you met all of yours. This may happen for example if we did not apply a change of circumstances within one month or we gave you incorrect advice.
We may not ask you to pay back an overpayment if you contacted us to tell us about personal circumstances that meant you could not check your award notice or bank payments. For example you or a family member was seriously ill in hospital.
Find out more about your responsibilities
Checking your tax credits award notice
If you disagree with the decision
When we've made our decision we'll write to tell you if:
- we'll write off some or all of the overpayment
- you have to pay it back
We'll also tell you the reasons for our decision.
If you're not happy with our decision and you've got some new information, please write and tell us as soon as possible. We'll stop recovering the overpayment again and look at the new information.
We may also review a case if you feel that we have not taken into account previous information you gave us. However, we will start collecting back the overpayment whilst looking at this information.
If you haven't got new information but you are still unhappy with the decision, you can talk to an organisation like Citizens Advice or Community Legal Advice. They'll help you consider your options.
Find your nearest Citizens Advice Bureau on their website
Contact Community Legal Advice
Contact us
You can contact our Tax Credit Helpline on Tel 0845 300 3900 or textphone 0845 300 3909 (open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, seven days a week except Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day).
More useful links
Where to start if things go wrong with tax credits
Download a leaflet 'What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?' (PDF 105K)
