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If your payments have gone down

If you're struggling to pay essential living expenses because the Tax Credit Office reduced your tax credits to repay an overpayment, please get in touch with them as soon as possible to talk about your options.

Call the Tax Credit Helpline on 0845 300 3900 or textphone 0845 300 3909.

They will ask you detailed questions about your circumstances. They may offer you an option for extending the period over which you pay back the money by changing the amount they reduce your payments by each month. If they do, it will take you longer to pay off your overpayment.

In exceptional circumstances they may write off your overpayment altogether.

• Find out how the Tax Credit Office work out your reduced payments

If you've received a Notice to Pay

If you have an overpayment from a previous award, the Tax Credit Office will have sent you a Notice to Pay asking you to pay the full amount within 30 days. If you're not able to do this, you can arrange to pay back the money over 12 months.

If you still need more time to pay, get in touch with the Tax Credit Office so they can talk through your options. They may be able to:

• spread the repayment over a longer period
• put back the date they start to collect the money you owe them

So that the Tax Credit Office can make a decision on your repayments you'll need to tell them about:

• your family circumstances
• your income now and in the future
• your living expenses, for example rent, council tax, gas or electricity bills
• your savings, investments and other assets
• your other debts, for example mortgage repayments
• how long it will take you to pay back the overpayment
• whether you are repaying a previous overpayment or have recently repaid one

When they've made their decision, they'll tell you how much money you'll have to pay back and how long they'll give you to repay it.

In exceptional circumstances, for example if you or a family member are seriously ill, they may be able to put recovery of the overpayment on hold until you are able to fully discuss your financial situation. Or they may write off your overpayment altogether.

If you still need more time to pay, get in touch with the Tax Credit Payment Helpline on 0845 302 1429 so they can talk through your options with you.

More useful links

• How to dispute an overpayment

• How to avoid being paid too much or not enough tax credits

• You have separated and have a joint tax credits overpayment

• Download the HMRC leaflet 'What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?' (PDF, 113K) Opens new window

• Help with PDF files