There will be a TC overpayment because there was a single claim when in reality they were a couple, so as Chris says, they need to claim as a couple asap to minimise the overpayment. May be possible to use the new Notional Entitlement provisions of the compliance manual to mitigate the overpayment, but only if there is a compliance investigation (watch out for this). However, even if the Notional entitlement rules apply, the husbands wages might make this pointless.
May be grounds to write off the overpayment through hardship provisions (the recent ombudsmans report confirms the Revenue are willing to consider such applications). However, probably no good pleading ordinary bog standard hardship - you need to show exceptional circumstances etc.
Finally, watch out for a HB overpayment - the HB rules do not allow for single adult claims in mixed household cases.
Steve
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