Tax credits review

[bananaistheanswer]

Has anyone had one of these? I've just received a letter telling me my claim is under review. It asks me to supply original documents - contract with child care provider and invoices/receipts from the childcare provider. I don't have receipts as such as I pay both my childminder and after school care by direct debit. I'm also buggered re the contracts - no idea where they are! It's about 2 years since I signed them, and for some reason I can't bloody remember where I put them. I can get copies from both childcare providers but as the letter says only original documents will do, how do I get round that? Also, is this all that I'll need to provide? What other info might be required?

Don't panic!

I had this last year, and it was fine once I sent my documents in. I think they may do this by postcode as last year, when I asked my childcare provider for a statement of account to prove I had been paying, she had already had 25 other families ask her! (Initially I wondered if someone had reported me or something)

If you ask your childminders for contract and a statement of account, they should be able to provide you with one. Pop it in the post and forget about it while they process it. As long as you haven't got anything to hide

I haven't had one of these, but i have a friend who has - as a spot check..

I would ring them, explain the situation and ask if your bank statements showing proof of direct debit going out is accepted.. Also ask them about the contracts (that's a tricky one).. Are you sure the childcare providers' copies are copies, and not duplicates?
If they say the dd proof is ok, make a note of the person you are speaking to, time and date, in case it causes any problems later.
I would only be concerned about, and send, what they ask for in the letter at this stage, iyswim. They might not require anything else later.

Good luck

Thanks. Re the contracts - with the CM, I got a yellow part of the contract, the original, signed, bit stays with the CM. I can copy that, but not sure that's enough for them. The after school care contract is just plain white paper, and I signed both copies i.e. it's a duplicate. I've nothing to hide just wondering what else I need to think about.

Dont panic banana, I had this last year. I sent photo copies of the contractual agreement for DD's nursery care, a statement of our payments made by direct debit, this was provided by our nursery on their headed paper and a short letter from me giving an overview of DD's childcare.

That was acceptable and I shortly received a letter in response confirming my payments from them would increase by £13 per month....goodness knows why, nothings changed in 2 years!!

I too, like you panicked when I first got their letter and immediately called them telling them what a good and honest soul I was , they told me not to worry in the slightest, their computer randomly selects a certain number of claimants every year, you can find that you're never selected or selected every year!

I've had this 2 years running. Both times I've sent a year's worth of nursery/after school club invoices off but no contracts... No idea what happened to them! Anyway, both times it's been fine and I wasn't asked to provide anything further. I assume my proof of child care costs was sufficient evidence.

I had this this year - I never had copies of my contracts from my cm - she kept them. But my cm just printed them off another copy, we signed them again, and that's what I sent off. I assumed this counted as an original document! I guess they just want proof from your cm that the payments are actually happening - I don't think the form of this proof really matters as long as it's signed as contracts all look a bit different anyway.

No idea whether it was ok mind you, as i haven't heard back yet!