HMRC is the absolute worst

[pinotnow]

I have to pay back around half of the child benefit I received last year due to my income rising after a promotion. The mind-bending unfairness of this when I am a single parent when a couple in my position could earn twice as much and keep it is bad enough, but it is what it is. I had looked into it months ago and for some reason, while I found that the deadline for paying is this Friday, I had missed the crucial information that I needed to register for fucking self-assessment by 5/10.

I registered at the weekend - twice I received an automated email saying my form was incomplete when it absolutely was not and then the third time I got nothing back at all - no acknowledgement, automated or otherwise. I understand I should receive a code which I will need to log on to something to make the payment but I have no idea whether this is pending or whether the lateness of my application is too late and I therefore need to speak to someone to get it resolved.

I rang yesterday. After listening to around 10 minutes of irrelevant bullshit I got through to a computer which I informed in a few words what my call was about. It directed me to an irrelevant website and cut me off. I rang again and this time mentioned 'child benefit' in my few words. I waited in a queue for around 40 mins and then got through to child benefit - not the department you need for paying it back. Very helpful woman said she would try to put me through to the right people but then gave up as she said all the numbers she had were not working.

I came home from work early to ring today and was in the queue for one hour. I got through to someone who wasn't sure who to put me through to and when she finally made up her mind it was to a computerised voice that said, 'thank you for your call, goodbye,' and cut me off. I tried the online chat and it's just a computer that directs you to pointless websites.

What the fuck do I do? I want to make contact with someone but I haven't got hours on end to fuck around on this. Fuck the fucking Tories who brought this shit in and made my promotion almost pointless and are now robbing me of my time too. Bastards.

You should have registered months ago

They usually take weeks to process the application, so now you just have to wait

They will give you 3 months to complete your tax return from the date that they issue the UTR for you

There is no point keep calling them

It is really crap how it is levelled in the favour of 2 people on £52k odd versus one on anything over that.
Way to kill aspiration and hard work hey. The system fails lots of people this way and single mothers suffer disproportionately 😔.

The online services are great when they work. Unfortunately speaking to an actual human has become much much harder.

Can you increase your pension contribution to take you back under the threshold?

@PickledPurplePickle I said in my opening paragraph that I know I should have registered months ago- that is the whole reason why I want to speak to someone.

I have just read something that says I could get fined £1600 for missing the deadline. Ffs I'm about to have a child at university who will only get minimum loan. This will wipe me out....

Unfortunately leaving anything until 3 days before the deadline is a recipe for disaster. This is the busiest time of year for them so I'm not sure they are to blame for the long wait times yoire experiencing. Ive always found them very helpful when I've called.

How lovely, so pleased for you @FrannyScraps .

The other really fun thing is filling out the self assessment and the figure not being what you expected. I am a normal PAYE employee (albeit higher rate tax payer) I paid the correct amount of tax for 23/24, I just needed to pay back my child benefit. But for some reason I could not get the figure to work and I ended up having to pay £30 over the amount of CB I received, absolutely no idea why, no way I was going through the rigmarole you described!

Empathy OP, it's really frustrating not being able to speak to someone.

You'll have no chance of speaking to them this week unless you're willing to stay on the phone indefinitely, sadly.

I filed my return yesterday and i was praying nothing went wrong because, based on past experience, they are useless at answering and they absolutely do not want you to call them.

They’re useless op.

I sent a self assessment form in online as I’m abroad and not allowed to do a paper copy. (also have to pay a private company chosen by HMRC £40 for the privilege).
I got an immediate automated response to say it was received.
This was September. Then I got constant emails telling me to fill in a self assessment form. The deadline is looming etc.
I rang and finally got a person who advised me to fill in a paper copy as a back up with a covering letter as he couldn’t fix the problem.
So I did, I then got threatened with a fine because my paper copy was late.
I rang again and they couldn’t fix it.
I wrote a long letter.
Still getting emails to send in my form.
In January I got another threat to fine me.
Finally I managed to get an advisor who said I know what’s happened can you stay on the line for 20 minutes.
I did, and she fixed it.
5 months , 4 phone calls and 2 letters until I found the person who knew what she was doing.

In France every small town has an office called France services and if you have a tax, council tax, health admin problem you go in and they sort it out or they tell you who can.

I spoke to them on the phone last week. The service was outstanding 🤷‍♀️

40 minutes is good, I was an hour and 20 yesterday because they had my ex employer down as my home address rather than where I have lived for a decade. Amd they owe me 7k, won't let me claim online which would take 5 days but will send a cheque which will take weeks. If it ever arrives. Bastards.

Always helpful. Often don’t know what they’re doing.
The guy helpfully told me to send a paper copy, it made everything worse.

Wow, they must have upped their game. Glad to hear it!

They have always been really good when I've managed to get through to them, it's just always taken me forever to do so.

They're godawful from a business perspective too.

Comes from creaking, ancient IT that has more glitches than right answers and a refusal to employ (and thus pay for) actually qualified people.

40 minutes would have been great if it had then been resolved. Hopefully you agree that 40 minutes to then get cut off is not great, or even good.

There is no point calling them just wait for them to issue the code

The penalty won’t be £1600, they can charge £100 for late registration

When did you get your pay rise OP, was it before or after April 2024?

Oh definitely. I got cut off first time too, after the 7 minutes of pointless info. No i cannot use your website because for my issue it says to phone you.

And the hold music was making me homicidal.

They are awful, I entered the same info 3 different times and got a different result each time.

And don't even start on paying on account, that pisses me right off!

They've been grossly underfunded by successive Tory governments. This has resulted in the work moving to lower grades, with high, sometimes unattainable targets and little or poor training.

I feel your pain. We have also been given no help or straight answers I just have to pay for the one week . As we applied for Child benefit when the rules changed. But they paid me for the last week of 23/24 Tax year. Which I knew we were not eligible for. Guy on the phone started talking about previous years which we hadn’t claimed for. Was no help what so ever. So I know we have to pay , but nowhere to pay to.
Should just send a paper form . As also tried online to submit As we also missed the October deadline … it shouldn’t be this hard to make a payment!

Hey OP feel your pain re unfairness around the single/couple threshold.
i was late a few years ago as had failed to realise id need to pay some back. I think i paid 100£ fine.
i now have to fill it in every year since, it seems by the way! Regardless of income. So far. Just so you know… been easier in following years though.
It’s a pain of a system.

I know this thread is old by my fucking God the woman on chat was useless. She didn't know what the hell she was talking about. I told the accountant and he disagreed with her advice. You're better off waiting to speak to an actual human at least you can direct them. The stupid questions she was asking me was ridiculous and had no relevance to what I needed.