DH has been accussed of claiming benefits he wasn,t entitled to - he didn't

[Hoaz]

He was unemployed for 4 months at the end of 2010 and claimed contributions based JSA - nothing else, as I was working p-t and just above the threshold.

Thankfully he found new work relatively quickly and he has a letter from the Job Centre thanking him for advising them of his change of circumstances and confirming JSA payments would stop the day before is new job was due to start. No more payments were made.

He has now had a letter from IR advising his that his tax code will be amended, meaning that he pays an extra £100 per month tax in 2013/14 due to them "previously advising you that you underpaid tax in a previous tax year"

That's it no, calculations, doesn't say which year and we have definitely not had any previous letter.

So, he's called IR to be told it relates to the tax year 2010/11 when he was paid JSA for 12 months, when he was working for 8.

I'm really cross;

-It sounds like it's going to be a proper headache to get it sorted out (the JC letter is apparently not sufficient evidence to prove the benefit wasn't paid )
-He was really reluctant to claim the JSA in the first place and now wishes he didn't
-How dare they send a letter implying he had ignored previous correspondence that wasn't sent (they haven't been able to supply copies)
-If they really believe he claimed benefit he wasn't entitled to, isn't there a bigger issue than just clawing it back. I thought benefit cheats were dealt with firmly (obv glad on this occasion that they haven't, but still...)

JSA is a taxable benefit as far as I Know, he will have paid tax on his wages and be over the threshold so he will need to pay tax on his JSA. Presumably he had it paid direct into bank so maybe statements will prove the payments?

He should have recived a P60 when the JSA ceased. That will be sufficient evidence for HMRC.

It might be that he has underpaid an amount of tax as JSA in not actually taxed at source but is taxable income and therefore added together with his earned income for the year to arrive at how mch tax is due for the year. This could have been avoided by him being put on a basic rate tax code when starting the new job, but maybe wasn't (quite common ime). If its just a matter of underpaid tax, which should be much on 16 weeks JSA then a change in this years tax code to collect the underpaid is perfectly normal so don't worry about that.

No Vickbee, it's not tax on the JSA, it's the JSA itself. £100 per month for a year extra tax is to be deducted, JSA was about £60 pw

should NOT be much sorry

You need to write all this down and gather together your evidence.

You need to state the actual date when he stopped working and provide proof of this (a letter of redundancy from the company).
You need the date when the JSA payments started (presumably you will have correspondence for this too?)
Find your bank statements, if you bank online you can search for the JSA payments and print out that page to show the weekly payments going through.
State exactly when the payments stopped (find bank statement for that month, copy Job Centre letter).
If you phoned them up to inform them that he had found work, detail what date you phoned and approx what time (most calls are recorded so they should be able to trace it).
Supply a copy of his new work contact showing the date he started.

Finally, ask them to provide all copies of correspondence they have send to you.

Inform them that a copy of your letter to them and the copies you have collated will also be going to your MP if this matter is not resolved.

I wasn't aware that you paid tax on Jobseeker's Allowance. You might get more info from the government website

Isn't it just that they think he was on jsa for 12 months, and therefore paid a small amount of tax that year, they've just worked out he obviously wasn't but want the higher tax he should have paid?

I don;t think he's really being accused of anything

DH gets his tax code re-adjusted every year!

Hoaz it honestly doesn't sound like the JSA itself. That would be dealt with in a very different way I assure you. You do not simply pay back benefits claimed in error/fraud through the PAYE system. You do however pay any underpaid tax in this way...

I'd not fret too much at all. The JSA can easily be matched up to yor dh without evidence and bank statements etc. Get him to call the employees helpline on 0845 300 0627 and they will go through the problem/details etc with him.

It is the jsa! He went on paye with a tax code based on his p45 from his old job, as soon as he started at the new Co. that was correct, I checked it then and have done so again now. He probably does owe tax on the 4m worth of jsa he was paid, but that cant be 1200 pounds.

we asked for calculations for how this liability h as been calculated and they can't/won't give us any, as it ,'relates to overpayment if jsa.'

You can work this out for yourself if you have the necessary paperwork

Add together the whole of his Gross income from working and JSA take from this his taxable allowance and the balance of the money is that liable to tax.

You can get the personal tax allowance for the year in question from the HMRC
website, as well as the tax bands.

When you have this put it all in writing to the tax office and ask them to confirm that the calculation you have made is correct AND say that if they dispute your figures then you want a written calculation of their workings.

They CAN and SHOULD put their calculations in writing to you, and if they do not do so then ask you local MP to sort this out.

When he started work again using the P45 from his previous employer did he pay less tax in the first pay period as he had not 'used' his tax free allowance during the months he had not been working?

It may be that you were given the full tax fee allowance for that year against his salary earned in the two employments without taking into account his JSA income (which they may now be over estimating)

we asked for calculations for how this liability h as been calculated and they can't/won't give us any, as it ,'relates to overpayment if jsa.'

^^this sounds wrong though. If they are going to make deductions from his salary then surely they need to supply you with information as to why.

Thanks molly,I know I can work it out and I have - he owes tax on the JSA he was paid for 4 months, but the IR have said this amended tax code relates to overpayment of JSA and they've quoted the dates it was paid over, a full 12 months, not the actual 4 months.

That's exactly what happened HighJinx, but tax on 4 months JSA can't be £1200

Hoaz.
You say he gave his new employer the P45 from his old employer. This was wrong.

When he claimed jsa he would have been asked to give the jobcentre the P45 from his old employer. When he signed off the centre would have sent him a new one which would have included the amount of jsa in the amount of taxable income.

So

This is the P45 he should have given his new employer.

Sorry posted to soon.

So

Argh. Bloody phone

His payroll dept would have been working on a total taxable income that was wrong - jsa is included in this; so thinking he had earned less over the hear than he did, presumably not enough tax was taken.

So there has been an error, but this is hardly being "accused of claiming benefits he shouldn't have". (and if he had it would be dealt with by dwp not hmrc)

Agree with starfish - he should hve given p45 to JSA people and then they supply a new one when he finished claiming. Effectively his work have used the wrong tax code as a result of this, carried forward a code that is too low for a whole year.

He didn't get p45 from job centre until 2 months after he started work, so yes it may have been wrong to give new employer the one from his previous job, but it avoided an emergency tax code and we knew he would ultimately have to pay tax on the jsa.

But they are saying he was paid has for 12 months, not the 4months he was entitled to, so yes, he has been accused of receiving money he wasn't entitled to. How else would you put it? They're not asking for tax on the jsa, but for repayment of 8 months jsa, which he was never paid. There's no way tax on 4m jsa could be 1200.

It souns like the P45 (not P60 as I was saying earlier d'oh ) wasn't issued until a later date than he stopped receiveing the payments. Still no biggie, its total taxable income for the year that is calculated, not what it is made up of or how long teh JSA wa sbeing paid for.

What tax code has he been issued for 13-14? Remember the tax code is an amount to be taxed at 20% - so an increase from 810 to 910 would be an additional £200 tax to pay - not £1000.

Are you sure that the change in tax code will result in paying an additional £100 a month tax? This would imply that the normal tax code for 2013/4 of 944L would become 344L.

If instead £1,200 has been deducted from his allowance so that the code is 824L he will pay an additional £240 of tax (£20 a month). This is about the amount of tax that would be due on four months of Contributions Based JSA.

Also 'Emergency' tax is actually just basic rate tax at 20% - which would have ensured no underpayment for your dh for the year I can see how its happened, but he has underpaid tax thats all.

If he was being accused of claiming benefit to which he was not entitled you'd really know about it!

yes, I'm sure, they say he owes 1196, which is why the tax code's been increased

Are you sure it is £100 pm and not that his code is being adjusted by £1200 on which he would probably only pay 20%.

It sounds like the previous tax code on the P45 was wrong and therefore when he handed that one in instead of waiting for the new one to come through it would have all worked out. But he may have been under paying for a while on his new wage.

No, I always check our p60s at the end if the tax year, so I know his was right and I was due a rebate( worth doing). I admit I forgot about the jsa, so there is tax due on approx 1000.

They are definitely referring to over payment of jsa which they claim he was paid for 12 months, when he was only due 4. Glad I'm not the only one who finds this unbelievable!

What tax code have they issued him with for 2013-14?
And what tax code is he on at the moment?