It's your money-claim it back
Hundreds of millions of pounds are up for grabs, so what are you wating for?
REFUND, refund, refund, (refund, refund). No I’m not stuck on repeat, I’m trying to hammer home that people are owed hundreds of millions of pounds – most of which can be claimed with a quick click or phone call. Here’s what to do
MORE THAN A MILLION PEOPLE ARE OWED A REFUND ON POWER OF ATTORNEY REGISTRATION FEES:
A LASTING Power of Attorney is a legal document which allows you to nominate a trusted friend or relative to look after your affairs if you lose mental capacity.
And they’re not just for the elderly, I have one, I’m 45. For more on how to do it cheaply go to mse.me/poa.
Yet if you’ve already got one, and did it between 1 April, 2013 and 31 March, 2017 in England and Wales, you paid £110 – more than it should’ve been – so you’re owed up to £54 per Power of Attorney (which includes 0.5% interest). To claim a refund go to gov.uk/
power-of-attorney-refund or call the Office of the Public Guardian’s on 0300 456 0300 and select option six.
You’ll need details (including bank details) of the person who it was set up for and the name of one of the attorneys.
ARE YOU MARRIED? YOU MAY BE DUE A FREE £900
THREE years ago, the Government launched the marriage (and civil partnerships) tax allowance. It applies where one is a basic-rate taxpayer and the other a nontaxpayer. The non-taxpayer can apply to have 10% (£1,190) of their tax-free allowance shifted to the taxpayer. This means £1,190 of income they were taxed on at 20% is now tax-free – a £238 gain this year done via altering your tax code.
More than one million couples are missing out. And you can back claim a refund to when it started, so that’s a cheque for £662 – making a total of £900. It takes five minutes at gov.uk/marriage-allowance/how-toapply – it’s the non-taxpayer who must apply.
RECLAIM OVERPAID ENERGY
WITH winter long gone, this is the perfect time for those who pay energy by monthly direct debit, to check if they’ve got too much credit. This is because energy firms estimate your usage, and then bill you based on their estimates. If those are set too high you can end up overpaying.
Only do this if you’ve been providing regular meter readings, or have a smart meter doing it for you. If not, send them a meter reading.
Assuming all is up to date, go online or call up to check whether you are in credit and if so by how much.
Direct debits are meant to smooth out your usage over the year so normally you’re in surplus going into winter and in deficit after. So right now if your credit is more than a month’s worth of bills, ask them for the amount over that back – it can be £100s, and ask them to lower the direct debit going forward.
If you’ve switched providers you should’ve been credited with any excess then, yet they used not to, so check now even if it was years ago
GRADUATED UNI? YOU MAY BE DUE £100S BACK
IN the last three years alone, over 100,000 university leavers started to repay their loans too early, and are due some of it back. Plus, as this could go all the way back to 1998, it’s likely there are 100,000s more. You are only eligible to start repaying your student loan in the April after graduation – often around nine months after leaving, and even then only if you earn over a set threshold. However, if your employer has the wrong info about your uni leaving date, or simply does it wrong you may start repaying early. To check and get it back is easy. Just call the Student Loan Company on 0300 100 0611 and ask it. It takes five minutes and I’ve had tons of successes. And that’s only one