AndyBCbound

We moved to canada in October 2008, we are here on my study permit,me the wife and 2 kids aged 5 and 7. before leaving the UK we notified hmrc of what we were doing and have both received our tax rebates. However we have received a letter from hmrc to tell us that our child benefit is going up to £30 per month as of January. It gets paid straight into a savings account in the UK, on checking this account today i have found that they have been ccontinuallypaying us monthly and havent stopped the monthly payment. is this right before i confuse anyone this is child BENEFIT and not child TAX CREDIT. We are not elligable to claim any benefits in canada as yet, what should i do, is it right that we are still entitled to it

AmyDavid

I do believe that you can continue to receive CB for 6 months after leaving the country. It may also be because you are not here on a permanent visa as such? Or just that some dope at HMRC took the details of your move and then didn't bother to do anything about it

Auld Yin

Don't spend the money until you've sorted out the problem. Governments have a habit of demanding repayment of unentitled payments. Logic says that as you're no longer residing in the UK, you're not entitled to benefits from there, but what do I know.

AndyBCbound

Not sure weather we are or not, which is why I'm posting

DaveLovesDee

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/...ing-abroad.htm

Apparently not.

If you move abroad permanently

If you're going abroad permanently, or expect to be away for more than 52 weeks, you won't qualify for Child Benefit unless both of the following apply:

you are moving to an EEA country or Switzerland
you are paying UK NICs or receiving a UK National Insurance-related benefit

AndyBCbound

Thanks, looks like i owe thembummer

Tracie107

Well we notified hmrc that we were leaving and not returning. They continued to pay monies into my bank for CB and last month send me a letter demanding back the monies (Overpayment) they call it! Luckily we had money still left in our UK account so that paid for it! Like someone previously said "don't spend the money" they will demand it back.

I am having so many problems with these people. They were also demanding that I pay back £1,700GBP for 2006 tax credits which they previously said we didn't owe them anything I wired the money through back in August as per their instructions whom to pay it too etc. only a few months later my bank called informing me that the monies had been returned due to the information they had provided was wrong - it was a dutch bank!

I haven't heard from them at all so have no idea what is going on. I am not going to bother calling them I will wait for them to chase me! They think it is so easy to just 'pay' when they say so yet what with the exchange rate and the cost to wire monies - complete idiots they are!

Sorry for the rant!

Linda P

I had the same problem......I made so many calls to them, each time being told that the money they were paying me, I was entitled to.
In the end I rang them on 3 occasions and asked them to stop paying me regardless of whether I was entitled or not. I was so worred they would suddenly ask for a large amount back.
When I moved from Edmonton to Sherwood I rang them to keep them informed....sure enough a few weeks later I receive a letter demanding it all back or they will take me to court

I spent months back and forward arguing my case and about 6 months ago got the letter stating that they had been in the wrong, so I did not have to pay them back!

One of the leaflets they sent me states that if they have given you the wrong information, and you have kept them informed of any changes in your circumstances...then they cannot claim monies back from you!!!

Good luck

Linda

sas-lou

I suppose its just luck of the draw ..

I informed Child benefit people a month before we left and they stopped the CB early, im not going to waste my time calling them ..

I also informed tax credits, was given the wrong info the first time then the wekend before we left i was told that i had been misinformed and that they need different figures, today i received a letter from them telling me i owe them almost 700GBP .. the bastards .. every year i have been overpaid, even though i have given the correct info and even over estimated my income.

Glad to be away from it to tell you the truth.

G77

They're notorious for doing this - I got the wife to cancel it before we left, just getting through to them was hard enough... They did manage to cancel it though - we think

Tracie107

When I rang them & got put through to the debt recovery department, the girl didn't even know what information to give me to pay the money back from overseas. She gave me so many different account nos.and reference nos. then when they posted the details to me they were completely different!

I have been fighting with these people since 2006 -regarding an overpayment in my Tax Credit which was totally and clearly their fault! Anyway they said we didn't owe anything paid us or really my hubby £900GBP in a tax rebate when we left, then 2 months later stung us with the £1700GBP.

From a previous conversation I had with them they said that even though we no longer live in the UK I will still have to complete a 2008-2009 tax credit form with hubby's canadian salary on it. DOH When I tried to get an answer as to why this was necessary the stupid guy just kept repeating himself that I have to do it!

Like a previous poster said - so glad to be away from it...................but still cleaning up the bloody mess they have caused.

DaveLovesDee

I apparently now owe over 4000GBP to Tax Credit for 2005/6 which i'm disputing, even though i kept them informed of changes of details as they happened.

moondevil

i informed child benefit and tax office etc etc

The only problem i had was with the tax, they passed my file over to another department as i was advised to call them the week i left, they informed me that i had to give them a months notice

So i kindly told the guy, well tough i am on the plane on saturday, my tax returns have been filled out, we dont owe you anything and if you want me you have my address.........
weeks later i got tax back.wwwwwwwwwwwwooooooooooo

which is still sat in my account as i dont trust them.....
as far as the others they stopped everything there and then.....grrrrrrrrrrrrr

cazzamia

Just incase you need to query something in the future it is always wise to note down the name, department, time and date of a call (whether government or private sector) and details of what was discussed. If the person will not give you their full name, sometimes they have an ID code or similar to identify them.

If you have this information it gives you extra clout should you have to query something later on down the line.

seanyg

Out of interest, if you're living in Canada (and presumably they don't have your contact details?) how can they MAKE you pay it back or threaten you with court?

Plus, if you've told them you're emigrating and they choose to still pay you, surely that's their error and you shouldn't have to pay for it?

Anita