Tax underpayment and hardship

[upferret]

Hi both my sister and dad have received tax underpayment letters, one for £900 and £600. They were both made redundant not long ago, my sister gets jobseekers and my dad lives off a small pension. Can they claim hardship and have the repayment held off for a bit, or spread over more years? as they are struggling on what they get now, I cant imaging how theyd manage if they get money taken off them. If they can do this, is there a special letter they need to send or can they just ring up?

[honeybee13]

Hello. I would normally suggest phoning, but I've just read in the Telegraph about all these checks and letters HMRC are sending out and it seems the helplines are very busy. They could ask the CAB.

 

Fwiw, last time I underpaid, it was deducted from my salary over a year. I don't know the position for people on benefits or a pension.

 

But I would certainly be asking the question. The other thing is to check HMRC's figures to make sure they actually owe the tax in the first place.

 

Hopefully you will get other replies here.

 

HB

[upferret]

thanks!