to not tell Tax Credits that I have a new job?

[MrsPiddlewink]

This is the 5th time I have tried to contact them to 'let them know of any changes' (my job).

Been on hold for 25 minutes.

Other times have nearly been an hour before I've had to give up.

A couple of times they have just said there are too busy and to check the website.

Send them a letter instead, that's what I do.

Write to them. Trying to get them on the phone is like pulling teeth.

They really should have a system for making these changes online though, it would save so much time.

Write to them but send it signed for so they can't claim they didn't get it.

Congrats on new job

Doesn't matter how much an inconvenience, it'll only hurt you if you don't bang your head on a wall to do it.

Congrats though!! New job! Best Christmas gift ever!

It makes you feel like not informing them doesn't it? But you know that it will be no defence once they launch an investigation onto your fraudulent claim.

You can't beat the system. Pop a letter in the post.

Ugh, I need to tell these people about my new job. I dread it.

I shall brave it after the school run.

What information do I have to give them?

write and send recorded delivery

Tali - tell them all about the interview and what you wore and that you'll be working with Tracy and Mike and that there a cappuccino machine in the kitchen and everything!

Or just let them know your hours, earnings and any child care costs

I went back to work in 2005 and called to let them know I was working. But every year we have the same conversation about how I work and have informed them but miraculously it disappears off the system every year!!!

Phone at 8am its much easier to get through then

I tried to ring HMRC last week (about declaring an Interest Refund from a loan) and I got the Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba (courtesy of Handel) for 15mins, (hung up) 30mins (hung up) and 25mins (got through) Stupid woman hadn't a clue but was going to put me on hold while she asked her superior. I said I had to go out, so would she please write down the sum I'd received, my details and Tax reference number and note that I'd declared it. She seemed quite reluctant to do this.

Sod them. You try to be honest and tell them what you should and they couldn't care less. They really are totally inefficient and useless.

(Have since learned that the refund doesn't need to be declared anyway!)

I work for hmrc, and mainly on tax credits.

Lots of people(mainly tax credits advisors) were made redundant earlier this year and many more are being made redundant shortly. This is despite higher than average call volumes and back office work.

On the whole the advisors do care, they want to help but are bound by archaic procedures and very high expectations re: calls taken and call times. Each second of every call is counted and compared from one week to the next.

Op- it's usually best to call during school run times or Saturdays(8am-4pm)- appreciate this is difficult if you work or do school runs though

Quick question - Do you have to declare any overtime? I've done about 8 hours of overtime and doing more. My contract hours are 16 hours.

Well it averages out at about 21 hours per week over 4 weeks, no idea what my hours will be over christmas.

I havent worked at any other point in this tax year.

I was told you just declare contracted hours...

I have no idea what to declare, so much hassle for a 5 week contract.

Last time I rang them to inform them of the change of circumstances ( DH lost his job) they decided to stop the money totally and when they deigned to reinstate it it was cut by two thirds.

I've been on JSA for most of the tax year. I'll tell them its 16 hours, fuck em, I still hate them over the overpayment fiasco.

To expand on what I said previously, we had an appt with the hmrc guy who said on credits forms you declare the hours you are contracted to work. You also declare your years previous income so I think they even it out anyway as I would presume they understand about covering emergency hours and overtime?

So don't worry too much :-)

What totesnamechanged said. DH works on tax credits. He is neither a "fucktard" or "stupid", to repeat two of the phrases used on this thread. He us doing his job as best he can and genuinely wants to help people but his hands are tied by an out of date computer system and complicated claim 'rules'.

They are so short staffed it's unreal and every advisor is under constant pressure to get their average call time down, their performance review depends on it and in turn their job can depend on their performance review. An advisor takes around 70+ calls a day and is expected to average around 6 minutes per call. DH also has to buy all his own stationary, etc because there isn't any money for it so when you're asking advisors to "just make a note" they possibly don't even have a notepad on which to make it. There are backlogs with post, claim form processing and referrals. Whenever one area gets too back logged, people are taken off their job to help clear the backlog, which is turn creates a backlog in their original work area. And so it continues. There simply aren't enough staff to make the department run even semi-efficiently.

And then people phone up, kicking off. DH has been threatened, has had lovely comments like "I hope your children die" and has had no end of shit treatment from people who think it's okay to speak to other people like they're "stupid" and "fucktards".

If you want to complain about Tax Credits, don't kick off with the person on the phone, write to your MP.

And if overtime makes up part of your normal weekly hours then it needs to be declared.

For example, if your contracted hours are 25 but you usually do five hours of overtime each week then you need to declare your hours as 30.