A letter from Concentrix oh behalf of HM REVENUE

[Howes68]

Hello please help if you can , I am worried sick , I got a letter from the above , the letter states We need to talk to you about whether you are living with a partner , I claim tax credit as a single person , they are saying that they have evidence that there may be another ault living with me , I do have a bf whom stays 3 days a week , they wish me to call , and are asking in the letter for Bills, tent from 06 April 2014 to Jan 2015 , scared they are going to horrible on the phone not sure what to make if it , feel sick , any tips or help would be great thank you

Anyone heard anything yet? And has anyone managed to find out if their letters have been signed for. This is a total shambles I'm getting madder by the day so frustrating

Makes me glad I have never been entitled to a tax credit. What a mess. Making so many people claimants by bringing so many people into the tax credit system all those years ago was a huge mistake.

I've checked with the Royal Mail tracking system my letter posted 8th may was received n signed for on the 11th

5 June 2014:

"A contract for providing additional capacity and capability to HM Revenue & Customs to correct working tax credit claims that are potentially running with incorrect information. The successful supplier will be required to contact HMRC's customers and by using HMRC's standard operating procedures, verify the customer's circumstances, either at the point of the renewal of the claim or during the period of the award. HMRC will allocate information to the Contractor via a secure method of electronic transfer. The Contractor will assess the claim, apply their own analysis and using their own employees contact customers by mail, telephone and text messaging.

The Contractor will be responsible for receiving evidence from customers in a variety of formats, holding that evidence securely and accessing HMRC records to amend an award if required. The Contractor will be responsible for returning all data on each case securely to HMRC irrespective of any correcting action undertaken.

The Contractor must be in a position to operate a flexible approach to resourcing the requirement and the ability to meet all of HMRC's requirements for the security of taxpayer information.

The Contractor is required to make decisions regarding tax credits entitlement.

Consequently the Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs have agreed that once the procurement process has been completed and a successful award made, they will exercise their powers under section 14 of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 to delegate to the Contractor the specific functions needed to permit this."
www.delta-esourcing.com/delta/viewNotice.html?noticeId=97910033

I have not found a copy of the contract yet. If anyone does paste the link here as I would like to read it.

)Total Final Value Of Contract(s)
II.2.1) Total final value of the contract(s)
Value: 75,000,000
Currency: GBP

"CONTRACT VALUE: The contract value stated at II.2.1 and V.4 is the upper limit of the anticipated value. The price paid for the services will be based on commission on the losses prevented; which are estimated to be between £55 million to £75 million. The exact commission is confidential commercial information that could prejudice the commercial interests of the successful Supplier and therefore we will not be disclosing it."

Blimey where on earth did you find all this LotusLight?

Oh my word, reading this stuff is terrifying!

I haven't claimed them in years, until recently. I married, and he left me with in weeks (long story don't ask). I'm pregnant, with our second child together (my 3rd child).

I'm due in June, and dreading adding this baby to the claim, because I'm sure something like this will happen to me.

How long do they stop your claim for? And is it all backdated? I'm on maternity leave, so I will be screwed completely without it.

On the plus side, he was never on my mortgage, he's off the electoral roll here (I took him off). He has no joint financial things with me, or at this address.

I can access my bank account for statements to print. Every single bill is in my name (was before he moved in with me 5 years ago, and as the main wage earner, that never changed).

I can't see there being any issue in me proving I live alone.

But why should I have to? There is no reason for them to suspect I don't. No financial links, or any evidence of anyone else living here.

They shouldn't be allowed to stop the claim, unless it is proven fraudulent.

They stopped my claim on 26th march this year saying I'd sent insufficient evidence, then five letters and no reply from any of them I received a Mandetory reconsideration form asking me to send them evidence they know I haven't got so filled it out sent it back knowing its futile but what can I do I've been honest with them trying to prove I'm single surely it's up to them to prove I'm not!!

Mines still saying processing posted on the 7th my claim hasn't been stopped stopped but I had till the 30th to reply reply hoping they receive it by then

Zoe, have you tried calling them to see if it's been recieved. They are quite friendly and don't bombard you with any questions. I posted mine 4pm yesterday special delivery and Royal Mail hadn't been updated either. He said it had been recieved and everything was scanned to the system already. I got through straight away too. Hope this helps. X

(just a websearch and I'm a lawyer so legal relationships and contracts are my stock in trade. Mind you I still haven't found the agreement, just the summary above. I thought all state contracts over £10k had to go on the contracts finder website but I might just not be good at using it or may be they think much or all of it falls within an exception to the Freedom of Information Act disclosure provisions).

Well LotusLight it made a frightening read that's for sure. I haven't done anything wrong but worried sick

Morgan I am so sorry, I am only just catching up with this site again I have got my letter now and spoken to someone who said they have been paying me childcare and that this is normal during mat leave which is weird but I will send off my letter and see what happens but it looks like they have paid childcare for over 12 months that I wasn't entitled to ffs with regards to proving you are single I am at a loss but I know someone I can ask I will see her tomorrow. The only thing I can think is that they are doing an address search on a system that we have I'm not sure that I am allowed to name the system but your ex should have registered in a new address so should have an end date against your address so you could tell them to do an address trace and tell you whether your ex is still there but could you speak to the council about your electoral role and whether your ex has been removed from the address

If I do an address trace at work it will tell me who moved into a house and on what date, and also what date they left and where they moved to with a start date I know that hmrc have the same system because it also shows me tax credits claims and amounts

Under the freedom of information act you should be able to request your file and where they are getting their info from

Can I ask if anyone who is NOT a lone parent has had a Concentrix letter? I've not been able to read the entire thread, but it seems that the focus of this is solely on lone parents. Obviously the "we think you have a partner and aren't telling us" letters can only go to lone parents, but it seems a lot of us have had child care letters too - have any couples had these?

Like someone else has said, surely the easiest way of checking child care costs would be to contact the child care provider directly - they have these details as you have to give them to the tax credit office. Surely a call or letter to them would confirm whether or not the child care costs paid match up with the claim?

"The Contractor is required to make decisions regarding tax credits entitlement. "
So if they get it wrong presumably the contract with HMRC gives HMRC some recourse and if the contractor gets it wrong the parent's claim would be against HMRC I suppose.

HMRC themselves sometimes send out letters saying you may well owe tax even to people where there is not one iota of evidence that they do. These kind of tactics do work. Other bodies do it all the time. It always smacks of bad practice to me.

It's really bad practice, and just seems like they're fishing for fraudulent claims with a very wide net. My letter says they think I might have been paid too much, but from what I can see there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this is true. The info on the tax credits renewal form in relation to child care costs is exactly correct (there have been a couple of changes throughout the year, and the dates are exact), and tallies with what I have actually paid out.

Once this is over with, I am going to write to them and ask them to state exactly why suspicions were raised about the claim.

I'm not a lone parent and my case is relating to childcare which was paid despite me notifying them that I was on maternity leave but apparently it's normal practice to pay childcare even though you're not technically working

Thanks for replying emmajayne. Yes, you are entitled to the child care element of working tax credits for most of maternity leave - for the first 39 weeks you are classed as being "in work" for tax credit purposes.

I know now but at the time I had no idea, when I had my 7 yr old this was not the case

I did say why on earth would you want to pay out childcare when you're only earning £136 a week but it is what it is I suppose but I have no idea what they are going to do about it

lotus do you think they are just trying to scare us into paying them it all back then?

I think like others have said it's so fishing expedition with a very very big net and it's ridiculous