I was late telling HMRC about my partner

If you have an overpayment because you were late telling HMRC your partner moved in or out (or died), you may be able to have the overpayment reduced.

When you tell HMRC about a change like this, your claim is ended and you have to make a new claim as a single person or as part of a new couple. If you reported the change late, you will usually have an overpayment on your old claim. Many people then get a surprise when they find out that they cannot backdate their new claim for more than 3 months. However, on 18th January 2010 the rules were changed and now HMRC will reduce any overpayment on an old claim by the amount you would have received if you had made your new claim on time. This is called ‘notional entitlement’. They will do this in most cases, except where they believe someone was deliberately dishonest.

If you think this might apply to you, contact the HMRC tax credit helpline on 0845 300 3900 and ask for your case to be passed to the ‘notional entitlement’ team (sometimes also called ‘notional offsetting team’). They will calculate whether your overpayment should be reduced. If you are not sure whether this should apply to you, get advice.