Thursday, June 23, 2005

Tax Credits

Tax credits are in the news again. Apparently, 10's of thousands of people have been overpaid and are having their tax credits stopped or reduced while the Inland Revenue (now known as HMRC) claim the money back.

I have been on the receiving end of this when the Tax credit office wrote to me at the end of April to tell me thy had overpaid me and would be taking £100 per week off my tax credits for 5 weeks to claw it back. When I told them I couldn't do without the money and asked them to spread it over the next year they refused, telling me I had been overpaid the previous year too. They hadn't told me that before, just adjusted my award to take it back - very transparent!

When I asked the HMRC for their calculations they gave them to me and they had estimated our joint income to within pennies of the final figure for the tax year. I asked them why they had overpaid me if they had all the correct details but got no answer to that question. Anyway, my pleas for help were ignored and my payments were duly reduced.

Somehow we managed to keep our heads above water for 5 weeks, going heavily overdrawn but managing to oay the bills. Then we got hit by cock-up number two.

When the new tax year started they didn't make a payment at all. We had already filled out our claim renewal pack and been notified of the amount we were supposed to be getting but no payments were forthcoming. I called them up, not best pleased as you can imagine, to be told it was a computer error and it would be a couple of days before the payment was made. Then it was the next week. Then the next. This went on for 3 weeks. I had to sell my car for way under what it was worth because we needed the money. I went to the papers. I phoned constantly and still nothing was done about it. In the end I had to go to the tax office in Telford and get a giro off them to cash at the Post Office.

I tried to complain over the phone as per their complaints procedure only to be told that I wasn't able to complain over the phone and that the leaflet I had been given was out of date. When I told the flunky I was currently reading it off the internet I was told the version on the internet was out of date and they had a more up to date version in the office. I was fobbed off constantly and the only people that helped were Telford Tax Office.

Now, I see on the BBC News website that families who have been overpaid by the HMRC through no fault of their own will have their debt written off. I still haven't sent my letter of complaint and request for compensation yet (Mr Motivation me). I think I'll ask them for the money back.