Yesterday I had a letter from the tax credits people with my estimated income and award for the last year. It informed me that I was being withdrawn from tax credits - as expected, but then under my estimated income for the year said the following:
Changes in your income
If your income is not as shown on this form please contact us immediately with the correct figures.
The estimate was out by a whopping 10k, so dutifully I called them first thing this morning. And waited....And waited....And waited...
15 minutes later I got through to a customer service advisor who informed me that he couldn't help until I had had my renewals pack through. Yes, as even though I am being withdrawn from tax credits, my DH and I will still get those massive renewals packs.
So, Tax Credits, you wasteful, badly organised ship of fools. Here is how you can SAVE the tax pater money.
- Do not instruct people to contact you immediately when you can't do anything to help them. Removing or correcting this statement will reduce the headcount required on your telephone service desk and reduce the hold times for the people trying to get through, reducing costs and improving the customer experience.
- If you are withdrawing people from tax credits, do not send through both a statement and a renewals pack. This is both financially and environmentally wasteful. Create a process where you get one letter if you are not renewing, or better still, how about allowing you to enter your income on line.
Nobbers.