Tax Credits advice please

[daddyphilboy]

Hi guys,

I am a newbie and this is my first post, although I have read posts before I have never done one myself. I need some help or advice regarding tax credits.

Last year, my wife and I separated, we both worked and she continued to get tax credits as a single parent.

In February this year, she lost her job due to long term sickness (depression) I was helping out with our daughter a lot and we got close again, we got back together last month and rang tax credits to start a new joint claim.

The forms were received by them on 17th April and my wife rang up for an update last week. They said there was a note on from head office dated end of April saying everything was fine and the claim can be processed for payment.

So we rang again yesterday and they said it still hadn't been actioned and so the operator escalated it up to the tax credits office ( I thought that was who I was ringing??) to find out what is going on.

My wife then rang again tonight to ask if this had now been actioned and was told no, still no updates on the account but that it had been escalated. They could not give us any time scale or extra information. Does anyone know what they are playing at? Has this happened to you and how long am I likely to be waiting? We really are feeling the pinch so were hoping it would be sorted in the 3 weeks they stated. Thanks

[flumps1976]

I can only assume that it is the normal delay at this time of year.

April to July is renewal period and they have over 8 million claims to renew whilst attempting to sort new claims.

The majority of people who make a new claim at this time of the year experience delays I'm afraid. It would be impossible to give you any time scales as there are less stafft process the claims but each member of staff have increased workloads.

[daddyphilboy]

Thanks flumps, yes I did think that myself at first but then started thinking maybe they needed more info or were just fobbing me off. It is probably just that they are very busy. It just gets frustrating when you are struggling to keep your head above water and everything is on a go slow. Another thing that really bugs me is, people who claim tax credits are usually on a low income so why do they have you ringing an 0845 number, leave you waiting half an hour and then a recorded message says "we are experiencing high call volumes, please call later, goodbye" and phone goes dead!! 3 times the other day this happened. Phone bill will be high next month

[Nystagmite]

Is using the phones at the job centre an option?

[flumps1976]

tbh most JCP do have the customer access phones however these are supposed to be kept available for customers wanting to contact either companies regarding current advertised vacancies or to make enquiures about a JCP administered benefit.

Due to previous abuse of the telephones and the very large bills some of these phones are now blocked to 0845 and mobile numbers and customers cannot contact HMRC from those phones. Also due to the length of time it can take to speak to an adviser some floor managaers actually place a temporary ban of calling the HMRC from and will direct people directly to their local tax office.

Do you have a tax office nearby that you could visit? That could be a further option for you as they should also have an understanding of the computer systems and should have direct lines to processing teams to make further enquiries.

[daddyphilboy]

Hi guys,

 

I am posting for my sister, she doesn't have internet access. Last year she was a single parent and working part time, she claimed tax credits. In January this year she lost her job and so the working tax credits stopped but the child tax credits continued.

 

In March she and her ex partner started to get close again and decided to get back together. He moved back in and she phoned tax credits to inform them. This was approximately the 12th or 13th of April.

 

Her single claim was stopped and they had to apply again as a couple, they then got what they were entitled to and have done ever since.

 

This morning she received a letter (just addressed to her) saying her payments had now stopped as she had not done her renewal and that she needs to repay the tax credits she received of (£102) which was £51 per week for the 2 weeks before her single claim finished.

 

Her question is this.. has she done something wrong? Will the payments they now receive stop? Or is this just relating to the single claim she had before? She is panicking that she will not get a payment this week but I'm thinking that because it's a separate claim, then those payments aren't affected and she will just have to pay back the £102 from the last claim.

 

Can someone please advise here? She doesn't want to ring the helpline unless really necessary as she hasn't got much credit on her phone!

Thanks.

[rubylee]

Hi

 

I think you will find it's just in relation to her single claim.

 

Is there a giro slip attached so she can pay the monies owed to them .

 

Regards Ruby.