Record £15.6 million underpayment identified for workers on the minimum wage READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/record-156-million-underpayment-identified-for-workers-on-the-minimum-wage

I spoke to HMRC this morning about this issue. Before sending them the letter they have requested, I thought I'd see if anyone here has any helpful advice... Earlier this year (March) they sent me two tax calculation notices, for 2014-15 and 2015-16, which claim I underpaid tax. The sums involved are c. £150 and c. £1500 respectively. I received a rebate from them for those amounts in those years. Due to the nature of my work, I nearly always receive a rebate so when these arrived I thought nothing of them. Banked the cheques and spent the money, like I always do. I contacted them in April this year to ask why they thought I should pay back the money which THEY had refunded to me, apparently in error. They advised me to write in explaining that I always get these rebates and had had no reason to expect that these were not, like the others, legitimate . I did so and heard nothing. Having recently moved and enjoying a morning of sorting various outstanding pieces of administration, I called them today for an update. Today I was told that the error results from my having worked on a temporary national insurance number at a past employer and my accounts having been merged. I have every payslip from this employer which clearly show my normal, non-temporary national insurance number. The advisor was forced to concede that this being the case, I would have had absolutely no way of knowing that something was not right, despite her repeated claims that it is my responsibility to ensure my tax affairs are in order. I asked repeatedly what I should or could have done differently and when but no proper answers were given. I am now on maternity leave and so it seems they have essentially put off dealing with this until next year (2018-19) at which point they intend to collect the 'underpaid' sums through my tax code. This will likely make it not worth my while to go to work at all, once other deductions and expenses such as commuting and childcare have been taken into account. I would likely be better off claiming whatever benefits I would be entitled to as an unwaged, non-tax payer. This being the case, they would send me a self assessment and if I didn't pay, refer me to debt collectors, according to the advisor I spoke with today. The advisor I spoke with was insistent that it is my responsibility to pay back the money as it is tax I owe. I obviously feel very strongly that I should not be expected to compensate for mistakes made by other individuals or organisations. As no-one can explain what I could or should have done differently, I'm finding it hard to accept that any mistake was made by me. Does anyone have any experience of this, or advice?

Good afternoon Everyone, Hopefully someone could help/advise me with a problem I am having with my former employer. I recently resigned from a part-time job working for a well-known Housing Association as they weren't paying me in full for the hours I worked (among other dubious issues). My job started 20th January 2016 and I worked exactly half of my monthly contracted hours between my start date and 31st January 2016 - over four days/shifts. I therefore expected to be paid precisely half my contracted salary (salaried, not paid hourly, unless claiming overtime, which was calculated using an hourly rate). Using the assumption that I would receive half my monthly salary, I was underpaid for January in February's pay. Then, in March, they deducted even more money and claimed that they had overpaid me for January, when I believe the opposite was the case. After numerous emails and telephone calls, staff from payroll claimed that they had initially calculated my hours (15/week) over a 5 day period (3 hours/day), which is what was paid in February's wage. They then said that they had recalculated my hours over a seven day period (2.15 hours/day) hence the deduction in March's pay. However, I actually worked 2 x 7.5 hour shifts = 30 hours - contracted to work 60 hours/month – I have copies of the email from payroll outlining how they calculated January’s wage, copies of my signing-in sheets, copies of overtime sheets showing my working patterns and rotas before I left. As is stands, I have been paid approximately £4.25/hour for the hours I worked in January. After two months of trying to get them to pay me correctly (and among other issues, such as lone working without backup with potentially violent clients) I resigned. Before resigning, I also raised a Formal Grievance and received no response. I am going through the Early Conciliation process with ACAS, but I'm scared of the potential costs and/or risks (i.e. potentially paying their legal costs, they have a huge legal department!) involved taking it all the way to an Employment Tribunal. The Housing Association suggested that I accept two-thirds of what they owe, but I requested to be paid in full. The ACAS conciliator didn't seem too pleased that I didn't accept the offer, which worries me. Someone has also suggested that instead of taking them to a Tribunal that I could take them to Small Claims court instead. I suppose my queries are these: 1) Does it sound like an ‘unlawful deduction of wages’? 2) Does it look like I have a good case for an Employment Tribunal? 3) Would it be better taking them to Small Claims to lower my risks/be more feasible than going through an Employment Tribunal? Could someone be kind enough to impart their knowledge of such matters please, I would be greatly thankful. I hope I've provided enough information, if not please let me know (and apologies if I've gone on too much!). Very best wishes, Ammy

Brief summary/history Other half's card. Commenced 1998, defaulted 2006 with interest frozen from that date. Default card balance was £6,500 - progressively paid/reduced to just under £5,000. PPI claim made October 2012 - initially refused but upheld by the FOS on adjudication. March 2014 NatWest credited £4,664 to the card, leaving a balance of £323. By my own (spreadsheet) calculations the payment should have been some £1450 more than they paid. Their payment was arrived at as follows: Refund of payment made 1998 to 2006 £2334.14 Compound interest based on rates charged £ 712.36 Sub total £3056.50 Gross interest at 8% £2010.43 Less income tax at 20% £ 402.09 Net interest £1608.34 Net offer £4664.84 It is their compound interest figure that I cannot agree with. During the 8 year life of the card, monthly interest rates varied between 1.385% and 1.620%. The average card balance was about £3200. My calculations show the compound interest figure to be about £2077 rather than their figure of £712. This would also increase the 8% gross interest amount due by about £1000. I reckon we want about another £2500 from them (before tax) I have written to them several times asking for a breakdown of their compound interest figure and have been stonewalled each time. They say they cannot provide these (complicated) calculations but that they are in line with the FOS and FCA guidelines. Their last reply even went so far as to 'explain' to me how compound interest works. I can scarcely believe the content of it. Here is the relevant paragraph from their letter: As a basic look at the compound interest aspect, if you compared the monthly balance of the credit card with and without PPI and the difference was £20, then the interest element would be determined from this figure. If the monthly interest rate was 1% and 12% per annum, this would mean that the starting figure for the compound interest is 20p (1% of £20.00) if your card then ran for 5 years, the compound interest on this PPI premium would accumulate as follows, year 1 = 22p, year 2 = 25p, year 3 = 28p, year 4 = 31p, year 5 = 35p. Therefore the total amount difference in balance of £20.00 in this example would be 35p. So, this 'expert' from RBS thinks the compound interest would be 35p. Well, I calculate it to be £16.33. She seems to have worked it out at 1% per annum rather than 1% per month. (I am not a mathematician so if I have got this completely wrong and she is right, please, someone, tell me I am making a numpty of myself). So, ladies and gentlemen of CAG, where do I go next with this shower? Suggestions and comments most welcome, thanks.

Hello CAG, Apologies if this is the wrong place... Ok. Cutting a very long story short. Back in January I received a P800 which basically showed and underpayment of £755. After a lot of back and forth (and holding on the phone, Grrr!) with HMRC and my employer, it turns out the reason why is the employer put on the P11D when the company cars were being swapped over an end date on Car 2 when it should have been left blank to say in effect the company car is still being used… HMRC then did as per the P11D and updated their side to remove the benefit of the car. However, when the next P11D was sent for the next year, this shows that I did have a company car through that period, and they have then backdated the tax. Then, just to rub more salt into the wound, I’ve had another 3 months added on top of the £755 initially sent, taking the total underpayment to £1100! Not nice So, I’ve spoken with HMRC who initially said that because it’s an employer error, contact employer. Employer then said that everything is correct, go back to HMRC as P11 is correct. Spoke with HMRC again, who said there were 3(!) P11D’s sent as they corrected 3 things in all, initial P11, Car mess up fixed, then Dental Cover added (they forgot this as well)... HMRC then said that because the employer has made an error, they are liable. Ask them to step in and pay this for you, or lodge an appeal with HMRC to advise that you (I) believe the company has made a mistake. Anyhow I spoke with the employer and tried to put the blame on them but then after the employer doing a lot of checks then speaking with HMRC on the employers helpline, they have been advised by the employers helpline that the “tax liability remains the responsibility of the taxpayer”. So, yes… I understand that is my fault as well for next checking my tax code on wage slip (yes, im naughty, its automated and have to log on so haven’t bothered in yonks – that’s obviously changed now!!), however in my eyes if the employer hadn’t made the mistake in the first place, I wouldn’t be in this situation now! So, this brings me to today… Need to know what to do next… I can think of the following: 1. Push the employer to pay 100% of the underpayment (preferred, obviously!) 2. Ask the employer to pay a proportion of the underpayment, being as it was partly their fault and partly mine for not checking tax code etc. 3. Submit an appeal to HMRC and ask them to investigate – I don’t think this will do anything except delay everything and they will still ask me to pay, however it makes me wonder why they said to me that I could hold the employer liable but then the ‘Employers Hotline’ turned round and said the onus was on me… 4. Take it on the chin and let the underpayment re-payments start in April Or, have I missed something and there is a 5th way? Yep, I agree that really this tax should have and would have been paid anyway, but now because of mistake I have to pay almost double tax this next year, April 2015 to April 2016 which is basically going to blow my savings plan for the next year… Any help, advice you can offer is very gratefully received. Cheers and keep up the fantastic advice that CAG offers

Am a bit baffled, as many will know from previous posts I have a neighbour who cannot use the internet and my daughter or myself occasionally find advice for her. She had her daughter and grandchild move in with her in June this year, and advised the council of this, she had an updated rent and council tax bill and payment arrangement. This was all done in June. Yesterday she had a letter saying she had been underpaid by £193 on council tax relief and it showed on her account now as this. The letter states that this is due to a recalculation. After trying all morning to get through to the office they said her council tax had gone up but so had her benefit and there wasn't any difference, well not much, new bill in the post.............. Never had this before. Why would they be recalculating when no further changes have happened. They are waiting to move but this wouldn't affect anything yet.

Hi Folks HMRC state I owe them an amount from 2008-2009 which only came to my attention on submitting my 2011-2012 self-assessment. In 2008-2009 I was bed bound due to ill health and receiving incapacity benefit and company benefits. HMRC have explained that it was my responsibility to make sure my tax code was correct at that time, so the onus is on me. At that time I was an employee off sick and it didn't occur to me to check. I can't afford to pay the amount. Today I spoke with HMRC and we went over my budget. It calculates that I don't have enough disposable income to make an sort of payment. My case has now been passed on and I'm awaiting further contact as I'm told they want further details. I'm partly on income-related employment and sickness allowance and on a self-employed low income. The representative I spoke with today advised I appeal one last time and explain that I was ill etc. I've refrained from doing that so far as I couldn't see how that would be considered in my appeal, and I really didn't want to pull out the "I'm sick" card. Has anyone else here been in this position before and knows what happens next? Is it likely to be passed on to a debt collector? Thanks

Hi there I received a new updated amount from tax credits. The problem is for 13/14 they are calculating the benefit to be received from 09/10. Is this correct?

Hi guys! This is my first post here, I am asking for advice on weather I would be entitled to an IS underpayment that i know occurred. I was recieving IS on the grounds of being estranged in 2011 after being kicked out of home. I recieve DLA at the middle rate for care and lower rate for mobility. I have a close family friend who looks after me, as I struggle with my ASD in my day to day life and have alot of social anxiety. I cannot go anywhere that is unfamiliar, it just terrifies me! However I am living in my own place, she comes quite often with meals and stuff and to do my washing etc for me. During the time between june - december 2011 i was living in a house on my own, and then moved to a shared house closer to the family friend. When i moved to the shared house i was told I was entitled to the servere disability premium as i lived alone (not counting the sharing of facilities, as i had my own room and my own tenancy agreement) which they gave me. Before i was only recieving the disability premium, not the servere disability premium, however in the first house i did also live alone, and no one was claiming any carer's allowance for me then, so surely i would have also been entitled to that then? Is it possible to apply to have this underpayment paid to me? Or is two years nearly too far gone? It was only recently i found out i should have got it then.. Thanks!

Hello, I privately rent a 3 bed house and have done since april 2009, We were lucky in finding one which was priced at LHA 2 bed rates as we had a son and a daughter both under 10 so they have to share under the lha rules. My son turned 10 in january 2011, meaning we were now eligible for a 3 bed. I did ring the council then and they said we were not entitled to any extra money due to husbands wages. Our rent has now increase to slightly over the LHA rates for a 3 bed and I did send council a letter from our landlord. His letter is dated march 2012. I have since checked my letters from the council as he recently became unemployed and on the new council housing form we recieved it stated weekly eligible rent £150. (LHA rates for a 3 bed in our area are £173.09). Having questioned this yesterday as my husband is back at work and wanting to give new salary details. The man told me that since January this year we have been underpaid and will recieve a refund... Now in january I recieved a letter saying my benefit was going up from £42 a week to £59.59 (letter stating change of liability) Yet when payments was not increased I contacted them to be told it was a system error and they have no details of this letter being sent payments were still £42 a week. Now however my claim has been adjusted to my eligible rent being £173.08 a week instead of £150. Yesterday whilst on the phone to this council man I had another letter delivered dated 24/Feb/2013 saying my benefit was being increased to £66.90 a week due to annual uprating and this will start on 1st april 2013.. (this is based on husbands old job). Im waiting for the paperwork from yesterdays phone call to come before I contact council again... I have looked at all benefit letters and the local LHA rates which since April 2011 have been £150 for a 2 bed and £173.08 for a 3 bed. These are the figures I have since my son turned 10 and just before his birthday. Date eligible rent LHA for 3 bed 15 dec 11 £149.59 £173.08 17 jan 12 £139.08 18 jan 12 £150 01 apr 12 £150 02 apr 12 £150 08 aug 12 £150 Now these are the ones I have from 2012 and my benefit varied from £33 to £45 a week but these payments have been based on the eligible rent of a 2 bed when since 25 jan 2012 when my son turned 10 I was eligible for a 3 bed.. Since this year I have recieved letters 15 jan 13 £167.31 £173.08 Benefit to be increase from £42 to £59.59 was told this letter was a MISTAKE and no increase.. 14 mar 13 £150 £173.08 New adjusted claim due to JSA application... questioned it man rebating us since mid Jan (due to system error) letter recieved 18 march but dated 24 feb 24 feb £178.85 Does this seem that I have been under paid and if so is it likely I will recieve the money back as I have some rent arrears and I could clear it with the refund.. Also is it best to question it in writing or over the phone? Thanks vicki

Hi, I'm having a nightmare with HMRC and by no way shape or form am I an accountant and am getting lost in a sea of paper! I've worked several jobs since 2010 mainly due to relocation and in some occasions worked more than one job at the same time (bills have to be paid - so had to clean toilets at the same time as my main job) In April 2009 I started Job 1 and started Job 2 in June 2009 at the same time. Job 2 was put on BR and I didn't have a P45 to give them as it wasn't my main role and was advised not to complete a P46 as it wasn't my main job. In September 2010 I started Job 3 to replace 1 & 2 and handed in my P45 to Job 3 from Job 1. In November 2010 I received a notification of a refund and called to query and was told this related to an earlier year. This was around £343. In this month I also received a coding change for Job 2 from BR to 647L, but was irrelevant as I'd already left Job 2. I left Job 3 in August 2011 for Job 4 which was a temporary role from September 2011 - October 2011, Job 5 was from November 2011 - April 2012 (I received ssp for the whole of March & April). I am now currently in Job 6 and have been since May 2012. In May 2012 I received a P800 notification for underpayment of tax relating to 2010 - 2011 of £585.54. I wrote to them under ESC A19 and said I disagreed with their calculations as I had called to check the repayment was due and that the tax coding for Job 2 was sent even though I had worked for the company for over 12 months as a second job. After hearing nothing for several months I chased up in August and received a letter in September. They agreed the sum was incorrect as £166 was for an underpayment in 08/09 and wouldn't be collected. BUT increased it an additional and amended P800 to £645 as said I had underpaid in 11/12! An additional £60 - but one which I wasn't made aware of until querying the previous years! I wrote back to HMRC in September and called too - only to be told that my file will only be reviewed once more and this is my limit. However - this isn't the original query as they had amended it from an underpayment in 10/11 to one of 10/11 & 11/12. They said they would get back to me in two weeks (27th Sep) and received a reply today to say that they have declined my appeal again because they hadn't received a P45 from Job 3 when I left Job 1. (Bear in mind I left Job 1 & 2 at the same time and only received a P45 from Job 2 in May 2012 when I requested one after the underpayment became apparent) Job 5 was on the incorrect tax code (747L M1) Pay of £8450.50 & Tax deducted £1097.40 on P60 issued April 2012 There is or was no reason for me to believe all was not in order and HMRC aren't been transparent by changing the years they're collecting tax for. I can't afford to pay them back the money they're demanding - nor do I think it should be collected as it's a series of errors I wouldn't have been aware of. I paid BR in Job 2 & Job 5 I was on the single persons tax code throughout. I appreciate this is complicated, but any help anyone could give would be much appreciated.

Hello everyone, this is my first post! I'm currently a student at uni, prior to starting uni whilst I was at school I had a job for Youngs doing the washing up in one of their pubs. I worked 7 hours a week on £7ph so I earned around £2500 a year. I have however received a P800 from HMRC saying that I under paid tax by £575 whilst I was there. I asked for further info and they sent me a breakdown of the figures that said I earned £14500! This is absolutely false! I rang Youngs and they said on their system it had me down as earning that much. The trouble is that I was paid in cash each week by my manager so I never received any payslips/official documents. I'm really unsure what to do as it seems I can't prove that I only did 7 hours a week washing the dishes! (They've obviously put me down as a full time barman or something) The manager I worked for has left the company although I could get in contact with him and ask him to write to Youngs with the hours I actually worked? I also think that surely Youngs must be able to prove that I earned that much- i.e through payslips, P60s or records of account transfers. I'm perfectly willing to open up my accounts to HMRC and they will be able to see that no transfers from Youngs were ever made (unless they propse that they paid me £1200 in cash each month!) Anyway, any thoughts on the matter would be really helpful as I really can't afford to pay nearly £600 of tax that I don't even owe! (poor student and all that) Thanks guys

Hi! I've not posted on this forum for a while now sorry! In my time I have worked for 3 major corporations: JD Wetherspoon - Pub Chain ASDA - Driver Sainsbury's - Driver (yea crap work history hey!?) Every time I have worked for corporations I found that my pay was short timed from what it should have been. At Wetherspoon I used to work till 3 or 4 am and the manager the next day would only pay us till 1. When you got your payslip you would then work out the hours you were short and by the time they would sort it or say you weren't or were short it would be the following week and again you were short and it would then never get sorted and you would just accept you weren't getting paid. At Asda they would do the same however all drivers started early (CLOCKED IN) thinking you were getting paid and for months having had the management said "You will be paid for when you come in" and we all found out in the end we WERE NOT being paid. At Sainsbury's they would openly do the same and all drivers would come in for there shift early and know they would not get paid for it just because if they didn't..deliveries wouldn't get out on time. Also if you were contracted to finish at for example 11pm and you returned at 11pm because you were late (because of an impossible route system) you would know that if you had to unload your van for half an hour you would also not be paid! I also witnessed a member of staff decide they wouldn't pay someone till a certain time because they had got late..NOT knowing what the situation was or anything!!! They had a system in all of these places where people could edit what people had worked. Surely that is like taking money from someones wallet or bank... If you clock in and out you should be paid for that..no questions asked. What does everyone else think and does anyone have any experience of this? It should be made illegal to modify peoples hours!!!

hey guys, i gave an estimate of mine and my partners income at 15000 overall for 11-12. however i forgot that i was on sick for 4 months which means our overall income was 10200. i called tax credits and told them this and they said that i have 2 wait 4 weeks to find out whether we can get any payment. we were getting around 90 pound child tax and 20 pound working tax. we have two children so how much per week do you think we were down by and how much could we be owed?

HMRC are claiming £350.00 underpayment for the tax year 2009/10. The problem arose because I had two jobs: a daytime job, which was my main source of income, and an evening and weekend job which was the second source. It seems that the second employer failed to inform HMRC and claimed the full allowances for me for that year. My employer was certainly aware of my other job as it imposed restrictions on my availability, and I'm sure I completed the relevant paperwork. I have no job at present and am not in receipt of any benefits, so have no income of any kind, nor any reserves. My wife will ahve to pay and we are finding thinks thin enough as it is Am I liable for the underpayment, or, if so, can I request that the sum is added to my tax bill when I do find work?

My ex wife walked out on my children and I in October 2009. As soon as this happened I called the HMRC to inform them and start a new claim as a lone parent. In April 2010 I was sent a letter stating that based on the earnings I had that the HMRC had underpaid the credits. It took a while to get back to them but when I did I informed them of my earnings for the tax year April 2009 to the end of that claim in October 2010. I was told that the underpayments would come to me and I had to confirm bank details. They said twice that they were going to pay into my account but no money materialised. I tried on at least 4 occasions to confirm my details each time being told there was a problem with the kind of account i had given them. Each time they also confirmed ALL the money would come to me. In between this my ex-wife told me she had also had a letter concerning the underpayment and had sought advice from the Citizens Advice who had advised her that the Child Tax Credit element was in her name and she was entitled to it. I told her I had been told the opposite and to not worry about it. I then did not recieve it and she "mentioned" she had had a letter and later that day I discovered she had also recieved GIRO cheques in her name for the CHILD TAX CREDIT element. She subsequently has spent the money on herself! I called the HMRC to be now told that because she was the main child carer at the time of the claim and because the bank details did not match her name. She was sent GIRO's for the CHILD TAX CREDIT. I am still awaiting any payment for the WORKING FAMILIES TAX CREDIT underpayment. Does anyone have any information on how I can get this resolved?