Council Tax Benefit, Tax Credits and a lot of confusion...

[chrysalis]

Hi everyone, I am posting this on behalf of my mum, who is at her wits end over a problem she is having with Council Tax Benefit and an alleged claim for Working Tax Credits. Let me explain..

She retired from her job as a nurse in January 2005. She is in receipt of her state pension, and a small private pension, and that's it. She claimed Council Tax Benefit without any problems, and got the standard letter to say if her circumstances changed to let them know.

A couple of weeks ago, she got a knock at the door. As she didn't know who it was, she didn't answer. The person put a business card through the door which was from the council asking her to ring the given number. When she did, she was told they needed to ask her some questions about her claim for Council Tax Benefit. She asked if she could do this over the phone, and they said no, because she "had to sign something".

Two men came out to her house, she said they were brusque, and made her feel uneasy. They noticed a mail order cardboard box on the floor that my mum had kept for her cats to play in - chewed and full of cat hair - and asked her if she was an agent for that company. When she indignantly said "no!" they pestered her saying "are you sure?"

They said that they had on record that she was self employed - something which she never has been. When she asked what made them think that, they responded with "we phoned the tax office on your behalf, and they told us" The men from the council also said that she had allegedly had two payments made to her bank account in November last year, something which she denied, and has since found her bank statements to prove. The men made her sign a handwritten statement about her employment status (she told me that everything on it was right) and the men left. She did not get a copy of this statement. When she found her bank statements, she tried to phone them, but her calls were never returned.

She telephoned the Tax office about the suppsoed payments and employment status, and they confirmed her details were correct, and said that they would never give out information to a third party anyway.

Last week, she got a letter saying that basically because she was self employed, she would have to pay money back to the council. The letter talked about Working Tax Credits - something my mum has never claimed or had any correspondence about. She found a helpline number for the Tax Credits people, and phoned to explain the situation. They said they would look into it, but reckoned they had paid her two payments last year. Unfortunately my mum isn't very good on the phone and didn't probe this further. They said they would send her a "standard letter" out, and she would need to fill in a form and send it back to them, but said they would ring her back within a couple of days anyway.

She telephoned them yesterday because she hadn't heard anything. The man she spoke to was rude, abrupt, and unhelpful. She said he sounded like he was reading from a script. He told her that her case had been passed on to an investigations department. As she had now found the bank statements, she wanted to pass that on to that department, and also to reiterate the fact that she only has a certain length of time to appeal to the council. The man said that the investigations department didn't have a number for customers, and kept repeating that they would contact her as soon as they knew anything. Rock, meet hard place...

Today, she has been trying frantically to call the CAB for advice, and the local office has been constantly engaged. She is incredibly worried, especially since we discovered that the extension number of the contact from the council is the same one as their fraud investigation team... She has no idea what to do, I honestly don't think she's even had a late payment with her council tax, let alone what they are implying.

What concerns me is how the Working Tax Credits people have her details. I thought this was something you had to physically claim for? As I said, my mum has never claimed for this, never had any letters, let alone payments from them.

Any advice for her would be greatly appreciated...

[breadline]

I always advise to present a Data Protection Act request anywhere you can , that is not playing by the book and are causing you concern.
She would receive all information held and may be you would be able to tie up some loose ends.
if she has had payments the proof of these payments will be in this information sent to you.
All payments are traceable however they are cashed, if she hasn't had the money i don't see how they can prove she has.?

Start with a Data Protection Act for both departments. council tax and working tax credit. One request may cover both. I would visit the office and ask, take your letter/letters in case and your £10/£20 and hand it in and request a receipt.

thats about all i can suggest at this time, theres something not adding up and sometimes we have to do the hard work of our own information in someone Else's office. madness but it has to be done.

[chrysalis]

thanks for the reply - yes, she is considering using the Data Protection Act, but the problem is that she needs the working tax credits people to sort this out quickly, because she only has a certain length of time to appeal about the council tax thing.

She has tried to get through to the CAB line again today but as the line seems permanently engaged, she is going to go there and camp out until she gets some help.

[chrysalis]

just an update -

Mum has been in contact with CAB, who are drafting her two letters - one to the council to ask for an extension to the appeal, and another to the working tax credits dept which sounds like something between a delcaration that she never claimed in the first place and a request to investigate the situation.

In the meantime, a local councillor has suggested she contact the police and report suspected identity theft. The police are coming out to talk to her in the next couple of days.