Some advice needed with Child Tax Credits

[Somebody Told Me]

Since August last year I've been to resolve an issue with our Child Tax Credits and was wondering if anyone had any useful advice which may help with getting this sorted out.

 

When I sent our forms back in July last year I inadvertantly completed it incorrectly resulting in our income being doubled.

 

When discovered this I contacted them to get things corrected and was told that it would take approximately six to eight weeks to resolve.

 

Anyway, nearly six months, a further six phone calls and one letter later I'm waiting for them to come back to me which they've written to me to say they'll do by 12th March.

 

Other than getting payment of the Tax Credits we've not received since July would I have any case to pursue any compensation in acknowledgement of the awful service they've provided?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Rachie1973]

Unlikely they'll compensate you, but they usually backdate.

 

How did you notice the wrong figure as a matter of interest?

[kinkyklee]

had the same prob well it was allmost same,took ages n ages n ages for them to sort bout a year and i just by chance rang them out of the blue to see why it had not been resolved and she said it had only just i wud get a letter....anyway a bloke rang me day later he had sorted it for me as noone was interested in lokking into it and he back paid me £1000 nearly...cheaques were sent a week later abit slow they are and they make you angry as if it was us that owed they wud bombbarred us with letters

[kinkyklee]

omg look at my spelling sorry bout that

 

good luck

[Somebody Told Me]

Unlikely they'll compensate you, but they usually backdate.

 

How did you notice the wrong figure as a matter of interest?

 

When they wrote to us confirming that we owed them in the region of £700.00 when our income has decreased following my wife's maternity leave I compared the paperwork from the previous tax year against it and spotted what had happened.

 

I have asked for compensation in acknowledgement of the awful service and while I don't expect I'll get any for me it's a case of "if you don't ask, you don't get".

 

had the same prob well it was allmost same,took ages n ages n ages for them to sort bout a year and i just by chance rang them out of the blue to see why it had not been resolved and she said it had only just i wud get a letter....anyway a bloke rang me day later he had sorted it for me as noone was interested in lokking into it and he back paid me £1000 nearly...cheaques were sent a week later abit slow they are and they make you angry as if it was us that owed they wud bombbarred us with letters

 

I get the ever increasing feeling that it's simply a case of getting the right person to take responsibility for your case and get it sorted out.

 

I feel sorry for the call centre staff who field your calls with very little information to go off and seemingly no support whatsoever from the Tax Credits Office.

 

Something I forgot to mention yesterday about one of phone calls to them was that I asked for the matter to be escalated to the Tax Credits Office around three months ago and this was apparently marked as "urgent". Clearly their definition of urgent is a far cry from the actual dictionary one.

 

I'll certainly be asking for a full explanation when I speak to them on 13th March (as I don't expect to get anything from them beforehand) for why it's taken so long just to hear what wonderful excuses I get.

 

If anyone else wishes to share their experiences please feel free to do so and I'll let you all know how I get on in a few weeks.

 

Thanks.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Since August last year I've been to resolve an issue with our Child Tax Credits and was wondering if anyone had any useful advice which may help with getting this sorted out.

 

When I sent our forms back in July last year I inadvertantly completed it incorrectly resulting in our income being doubled.

 

When discovered this I contacted them to get things corrected and was told that it would take approximately six to eight weeks to resolve.

 

Anyway, nearly six months, a further six phone calls and one letter later I'm waiting for them to come back to me which they've written to me to say they'll do by 12th March.

 

Other than getting payment of the Tax Credits we've not received since July would I have any case to pursue any compensation in acknowledgement of the awful service they've provided?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Hopefully they will get it sorted out by the 12th March,

 

If its not then I would make a complaint, and copy in your MP.

when its resolved then it will be sent

for a special payment to be considered..

 

If they do resolve it then I would ask for one to be considered now

[Rachie1973]

When they wrote to us confirming that we owed them in the region of £700.00 when our income has decreased following my wife's maternity leave I compared the paperwork from the previous tax year against it and spotted what had happened.

 

I have asked for compensation in acknowledgement of the awful service and while I don't expect I'll get any for me it's a case of "if you don't ask, you don't get".

 

 

 

See, the problem with that is that when they send the award notice out they ask you to check all the details carefully. They'll fall back on that

[Somebody Told Me]

Hopefully they will get it sorted out by the 12th March,

 

If its not then I would make a complaint, and copy in your MP.

when its resolved then it will be sent

for a special payment to be considered..

 

If they do resolve it then I would ask for one to be considered now

 

Thanks for the advice. As I'm quite new to all this could you clarify what a special payment is?

 

When they wrote to us confirming that we owed them in the region of £700.00 when our income has decreased following my wife's maternity leave I compared the paperwork from the previous tax year against it and spotted what had happened.

 

I have asked for compensation in acknowledgement of the awful service and while I don't expect I'll get any for me it's a case of "if you don't ask, you don't get".

 

 

 

See, the problem with that is that when they send the award notice out they ask you to check all the details carefully. They'll fall back on that

 

Admittedly I made the initial mistake when completing the form last yeay but the day we received the award notice I spotted had happened and called them to get it corrected.

 

During one call with I was told that my error is a common one.

 

Anyhow, being told it'll be resolved within six to eight weeks and now six months down the line with one letter in acknowledgement to mine as their only contact with us is nothing short of shocking for me.

[Somebody Told Me]

Just a quick update.

 

Our income figures have now been amended - finally - but our overall dissatisfaction has basically been washed over by the first person who 'handled' our complaint resulting in us having to write to them again.

 

This prompted a better reply but still missed a crucial aspect of our case relating to an adjustment to my wife's income which we'd been led to believe we'd be entitled to due to her having been on maternity leave between June 2008 and May 2009. Has anyone else heard of this?

 

In addition, we've also been awarded £20.00 as some form of compensation which for us doesn't really cut it bearing in mind the number of phones calls we've made (11) and now three letters we've had to send to them since August last year.

 

Just awaiting their final position so that we can take this to the Adjudicator should we remain unhappy with the outcome.

[Dragon2020]

Just a quick update.

 

Our income figures have now been amended - finally - but our overall dissatisfaction has basically been washed over by the first person who 'handled' our complaint resulting in us having to write to them again.

 

This prompted a better reply but still missed a crucial aspect of our case relating to an adjustment to my wife's income which we'd been led to believe we'd be entitled to due to her having been on maternity leave between June 2008 and May 2009. Has anyone else heard of this?

 

In addition, we've also been awarded £20.00 as some form of compensation which for us doesn't really cut it bearing in mind the number of phones calls we've made (11) and now three letters we've had to send to them since August last year.

 

Just awaiting their final position so that we can take this to the Adjudicator should we remain unhappy with the outcome.

 

 

Hi

 

Iam glad to see you have this sorted.

 

Unfortunatly the contact centres have no form of verble communications to the tax credit office and only able to send electronic form of communication.

 

You can request a call back from the if you complain but iam unsure if they do that now.

 

However if you contact you MP about the problems you have had and explain your situation and get him to formally complain, you may see things move faster.

 

Saying that TAX CREDITS may not exist soon if the conservatives get incontroll but that wont happen fast.

[reallymadwoman]

If you need to go to the independent adjudicator, a couple of tips from my own experience.

1. It will take forever - I've now been waiting over a year - but allegedly, you are far more likely to get some compensation.

2. Before you send it off to him, do a subject access request to tax credits. They don't charge and they should even send you recordings of phone calls. I discovered some very interesting information by doing this, but even if you don't, it's free so you've nothing to lose. At the very least, the SAR will help you to put everything in the right order.

3. Make sure you read the leaflets on the tax credits website about their and your responsibilities so you can identify exactly where they might have failed.

[Somebody Told Me]

Hi

 

Iam glad to see you have this sorted.

 

Unfortunatly the contact centres have no form of verble communications to the tax credit office and only able to send electronic form of communication.

 

You can request a call back from the if you complain but iam unsure if they do that now.

 

However if you contact you MP about the problems you have had and explain your situation and get him to formally complain, you may see things move faster.

 

Saying that TAX CREDITS may not exist soon if the conservatives get incontroll but that wont happen fast.

 

From the many calls I've made it is clear to me that they are virtually lambs to the slaughter and I feel from them.

 

I don't think that offer call backs any longer they just advised me to write to them with my complaint.

 

I have considered writing to my MP but thought I'd see how far I could get on my own first.

 

If the Tories do withdraw Tax Credits hopefully they'll replace it with something far more straightforward....but I doubt it.

 

If you need to go to the independent adjudicator, a couple of tips from my own experience.

1. It will take forever - I've now been waiting over a year - but allegedly, you are far more likely to get some compensation.

2. Before you send it off to him, do a subject access request to tax credits. They don't charge and they should even send you recordings of phone calls. I discovered some very interesting information by doing this, but even if you don't, it's free so you've nothing to lose. At the very least, the SAR will help you to put everything in the right order.

3. Make sure you read the leaflets on the tax credits website about their and your responsibilities so you can identify exactly where they might have failed.

 

Thanks for tips - they're appreciated.

 

On the time side of things it's got to the point now that I'll stop once I've got what I feel is right or have exhausted all of my options of complaining to them.

 

Is there a particular address the SAR needs sending to?

 

Good luck with your claim and would you mind letting me know how you get on?

[reallymadwoman]

Address is:-

 

DATA COMPLIANCE OFFICER


TAX CREDIT OFFICE


PRESTON


PR1 0SB


 

I will post the outcome of my complaint, eventually!

[Somebody Told Me]

Thanks for this.

 

And good luck again with your claim - will be interesting to see what the outcome is.

[Somebody Told Me]

Have now received by third letter from the Tax Credits Office.

 

This one states that before they were able to amend our incomes figures for 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 they had to ensure that they were legally able to amend that reward to reflect the revised income figures and are claiming that this only became possible in March this year - after I had chased them for umpteenth time!

 

In addition, they've confirmed that they have now amended my wife's income by £3900.00 for 2007-2008 but due to our income the award for that period doesn't change - brilliant. So beggars the question as to why this mentioned in the first place when the guy I spoke knew what our incorrect income figures and surely would've known that this amendment would've made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

 

On the subject of compensation they've decided they are unable to make a further payment - after careful consideration - as the initial payment wasn't intended to put a monetary value on the worry and distress caused.

 

Next stop is their Data Compliance Officer with a SAR request to see what they uncover before deciding whether or not to involve The Adjudicater's Office.

[Somebody Told Me]

Finally got around to sending the SAR off - lets see what comes back.

 

Also tried to renew our claim over the phone - what a complete waste of time around 50 calls (I did a tally chart after a bit) to not even get the chance to speak to someone - pathetic.