IRD family assistance

has anyone else been stung really hard by overpayment?? sorry im just really upset about mine!

my hubby's income had a bit of unexpected change throughout the year and we did notify ird about each change, and then at the end of the year, hubby's work lost some staff and ended up having to work some pretty crazy and long hours..... basically we didnt know how long it would go on for, but it ended up lasting a while..... anyway it pushed our years earnings over the estimated amount.

we were then hit with a $2276 bill (now interest making it up to $2490) and it is really hard. we have just organised payments, but seem to be strugling to meet them (i pay them though!) but its really hard living each week paying all the bills, mortgage, rates, power, food etc.... let alone with the extra!!! argh! it sux. we are a family of 4 (with our 3rd baby due in august) and we just cant seem to get out of this rut! its stressing me out, and i am so worried about being able to live with our new addition.

has anyone else ever been overpaid when they believed they were doing the right thing (adjusting income the whole year?)
to me it just seems wrong, and i still have no idea how it came to be so much. we are a young family now really struggling more! we stopped any payments as soon as we recieved the bill, hoping that maybe this year we may have some owing to us just to help knock off some of the debt...

so sorry for the rant..... it just brings tears to my eyes with this huge stress.

thanks! (i feel so stupid)

Is your hubby self employed or is it Family assistance help?
I think I may be in the same boat as you (jsut haven't rung IRD cause im scared!) cause my partner has had 2 different jobs in the last year, I went to work, stopped and went back again.

Anyway - keep ringing IRD until you get a sympathetic person (try 1st thing in the morning when they aren't stressed!) and ask if you can strech the payments over another month or so as you kept in contact with what was happening with your income and nothing was done about it! (even if it was the customer is always right!)

If he is self employed you can rant on about provisional tax etc...

Good Luck and *HUGS*

They changed our payments and way underestimated troy's pay, we had to ring them 5 times before they put it back up, then they changed it later on in the year and also underestimated it, so over a period of two years we recieved an overpayment of $5500 which is now nearly $6000 due to interest. I give up with them now and we have started over estimating what troy will earn to try to compensate and hopefully have a refund deducted from the balance owing. Not a great place to have to deal with. We only pay $20 a week at the moment as we are on one wage and there are five of us, they wanted $50 and all we had to do was fill in a budget form to show what we pay out. Maybe try and get the payments reduced. Isn't the interest supposed to stop if you are making Payments I think ours has. Might pay to check. Good luck!

thanks for the reply's! its just so frustrating! im sorry that it has happened to so many people. i think there needs to be a warning for people! i mean, we get the help because we need it, then to get hit with overpayment bills.... its not fair.

lena- it was all family assistance, we arent self employed....
vick- i am so sorry you were oerpaid by that much....
how horrible that you think you are doing the right thing by ringing, but they continue to under-estimate, im sure that was our problem too, we would ring and the figure they came up with was right.... even though it wasnt.

i am going to make sure that i do warn people to be careful when they recieve the family assistance, and i too, like maya would recommend the bulk payment at the end of the year.

take care everyone! and thanks again for letting me vent! i know im not alone in this...

just a quick note - everytime you call, make a note of the day, time and w2ho you talked to. also quick notes of who said what.