To be annoyed with bloody Tax Credits?

[ObsidianEagle]

Honestly, i sometimes wish you could ask them to send you a transcript of your phone conversations.

In january, DH started a new job and i left mine.

I phoned Tax Credits and informed them of both changes, gave them my final income and Dh new employer, date he started and estimated yearly income on the new job if he worked for the whole tax year. (under 17.5k)

i got an award notice, giving details on CTC and WTC for the rest of this tax year and what i'd be paid next tax year, which was good and i was happy.

Today, i got another award notice out of the blue, this one saying i was only getting 1 more WTC payment and would now only get CTC after april.

So i phone them up to ask what's going on as i havent changed anything since the last tax award notice, and they tell me they only got info about my job ending, and i have to give them ALL of the details about DHs new job, all over again, so now i'm stuck in limbo for the next 14 days not knowing if we're getting WTC after april or not until yet ANOTHER tax award notice comes through.

ARGH.

[ObsidianEagle]

is it worth complaining?

[Eustasiavye]

I don't have any advice but feel you pain. In one week alone I received 8 separate letters confirming the amount of tax credits I would receive, each of them different.

I work regular hours for the same employer and my dcs live with me. Lord knows if they cannot get my award right how they deal with more complex cases.

[ProbablyMe]

Yes! Complain - they should have transcripts available you'd you ask them. I had to once as they decided to tell me my award was stopped as I had no children - I have 4! In my case I ended up on regional news and then they finally sorted it out. They need to be complained at so the complaints get recorded and they might possibly sort themselves out.

Good luck!!

[ProbablyMe]

Sorry, YANBU!

[Stinkle]

I feel your pain too.

Mine is a bit unusual in that I'm considered full time employed with a zero income, but they keep recording me as being employed 16 hours a week on minimum wage. I've told them a million times, and every time I get a letter with it right, then 2 weeks later another letter with it back to 16 hours/minimum wage.

It works out in their favour, so I've given up trying. It's so bloody frustrating.

I tried to cancel the whole thing a couple of years ago but they then told me I'd have to pay back that years award

[crazykat]

Tax credits are ridiculous, especially the new auto renewal system where they get your income details from hmrc. I've got an ongoing problem with someone using my national insurance number so with the new system they randomly stop payments for a few weeks. I can't afford to work due to childcare costs even taking into account the childcare element we'd get, if I did work and we were relying on the childcare element we'd really be up a creak when they stop payments due to an error which is not my fault. I'm dreading April as I know I'll have the same problem despite spending £30 on phonecalls last year sorting it out, not to mention how much it's cost every other time I've tried to sort it out by phoning tax credits, tax office, national insurance office etc. All to be told it's sorted for now but they can't put a note on the file to not stop payments without contacting me as there's a know error on the system.

The whole thing needs sorting. I'd definitely complain but doubt you'll get anywhere.

[TooOldForGlitter]

Tax credits are an absolute joke. I can't believe they get away with such incompetence and we just have to take it and can't do a damn thing.

They've just written to me saying that I have to prove my childcare costs because they think I am getting the wrong payments. I spoke to them on three separate occasions to tell them that I no longer used a childcare provider. I don't think I have kept the bills from the nursery and now I have no idea how i'm going to prove anything. I can't afford to lose a single penny but I can almost guarantee that I am going to, because of their utter incompetence. It makes me fume.

[finnbarrcar]

It's a terrible system. Years ago I went through the very long and arduous initial application only to be told I was being awarded the bare minimum which at that time was £10 a week. I argued in several telephone conversations and correspondence that they had got it wrong and my entitlement was far higher. They kept stonewalling me. About 2 years later two random payments totalling almost £1000 was put into my bank account. I rang them up and questioned it and they said that it was back pay because I had been getting the wrong amount (really???). I was exasperated by the whole thing and eventually stopped applying because they always then said I owed THEM money.

What really annoys me is they have ALL this information centrally and making people apply for it is a waste of time and effort. They can tell from your P60s exactly what you earn and if your circumstances are not changing they should know precisely what your award should be.

[DontOpenDeadInside]

They stopped my claim last august saying i never renewed in April. I did! However, coincidentally i had changed my address the week before, so i think who-ever did that, wiped my info out.

[TooOldForGlitter]

Love your username DontOpenDeadInside I'm known as DontDeadOpenInside on another forum

[Purplepoodle]

Another tax credit woe here. They didn't receive proof of childcare from daycare (daycare wont give it tonparents as they have had roo mamy defraud system so tax credit stopped only they sent all the paperwork to the wrong address so first thing I knew was that I'd lost £100s off credits. Now to speak to the person dealing with my case u ring a number only this person only works pt and certain hours and days so phone just rings out at other times - surely an answerphone or even an auto message of when the persons in would be a good idea

[DisappointedOne]

We don't get any free money but I'm not understanding how somebody can be "full time employed with zero income"....

[ahbollocks]

Yanbu - I lost five weeks payments because I changed my bank acc details :/

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I'm not understanding how somebody can be "full time employed with zero income

Self-employed in the middle if a horrendous recession that has dragged on for ever.

[DisappointedOne]

Why would anyone remain "self employed" if they were working full time and making nothing? Makes no sense.

[EternalBeauPlate]

TooOldForGlitter
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2287329-A-letter-from-Concentrix-oh-behalf-of-HM-REVENUE this might help you?

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Because if you have spent years building up a business it is both soul destroying and difficult to wind it up. If you do do this then you are then on out of work benefits, trying to get a job in a climate where there are many more workless than jobs. Many, ,many small businesses are hanging in there, waiting for the economy to pick up. There are also lots if start ups at the moment due to the lack of employment opportunities, and startups are never profitable from day one

[RumPunch]

Dontopendeadinside I had the exact same thing happen to me after I moved house. Had to make a whole new claim. Was a pain in the arse because that got messed up too!

[Shakey1500]

They DO have recordings of phone calls,you just need to request them. I got mine when disputing an almost 4k "overpayment" and won, using the recording as clear evidence. Took almost 4yrs mind.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Complaining won't make a jot of difference, but waste your time and money.
just make sure they don't close your claim down, promise to reopen, not take your details because the computer won't accept them and then set you up with a debt collecting agency.
Whichever way you turn, the system is just none existent and nobody is "trained to deal with your problem".
They have completely fucked our award this year, all their fault and not so much as an apology. i'm still sorting ours out since August. Finally got the lump sum paid last month, but still being hassled by the debt collection agency, who now expect me to copy the award so they can speak to HMRC.
It's all bollocks OP.

[DisappointedOne]

"startups are never profitable from day one"

Ours was. So were DH's previous 2. All are still trading. I'm not convinced that's luck.

[oldcroneat39]

From experience. They consider it your responsibility. In any other line of work they'd get their wrist slaps for "losing" information. But you are always responsible (even signed on recipt post in my experience).
Tax are like that. I remember the fun I had proving I didn't have a second job. (How do you do that tax office again). I was assured they dod not need evidence I did. Really, really messed up approach there.

[mummytowillow]

You can get all written and recorded records if you ask for data subject access form.

Will cost you £10 and they have 40 days to give it to you. Be very clear what your asking for and they have to give it to you.

[Blamenargles]

I hate tax credits, we have had to pay back nearly £2000 because they didnt process the information I gave them about DPs new job and the fact that he would earn over the cut off limit.
luckly I just put the money to one side because I knew it was wrong. I rang at least 3 times to inform them they had It wrong but no they knew better till I got a letter telling me I had been over paid.
so glad we dont have to deal with them anymore

[TaliZorahVasNormandy]

I'm still paying back an overpayment from the time I was with my exp. I've still go 2 years til its fully paid.

I know I had my exp's income right, but they would not provide me with the evidence to prove it, so I was stuck £700 back at £10 a month.