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

I've just received a letter from these people...quite accusatory in tone.....saying they've got information that I have a partner living with me. I don't, I'm widowed - only my kids live here. On the phone they said they're not even allowed to tell me who I'm supposed to be living with.

I have to send 12 months worth of bank statements, gas bills, electricity bills, telephone bills, water bills, council bills - through the post - to a company I've never heard of...or else they'll stop my payments.

Concentrix seem to be a profit-making business, not a government department, so presumably the more 'investigations' they can falsely drum up, the more money they can invoice HM Revenue for.

The whole thing stinks in my opinion. I wish THEY could be investigated.

Greenish if you look back I posted details of the contract HMRC put out to tender under which C are paid based on how many people's claims they stop - so yes they are hugely incentivised to make people stop claiming. However if you don't have a partner then you should be fine - just send in the information and I would include the death certificate of the husband too for good measure.

Perhaps they'll be wanting virginity test results next....

Totally agree with you GreenishMe they all need investigating they make their demands to send our stuff back by a certain date but can't reply to any letters inspite the face the letters have been received and signed for!! Had the same two years ago and everything I sent then was ok,this time around oh no the evidence is insufficient. Total madness they haven't a clue what they're doing from one day to the next.

Sorry Lotus, I missed your post.......there were so many to wade through. I have no choice but to send the info but I'm worried about who'll actually be getting access to it.

Your remark about the virginity test :) actually made me think though...it looks as though the main criteria for receiving one of these letters is simply being a lone female, which makes me even more angry.

Morgan, I just tried to set up an online government e-petition ....but the service has been temporarily suspended :(

An online government e- petition suspended well GreenishMe what a surprise.nothing fails to surprise me at the moment the way most of us have been treated is disgusting,money stopped without warning,don't these people realise we have children to look after! Well of course they know we have children but they don't care!

It was interesting and not surprising that a main requirement of the HMRC contract invitation was confidentiality because that is a big deal with HMRC - every day they ask small businesses and individuals for copies of their bank statements - standard practice . I mentioned two HMRC VAT inspections and 2 of two nannies' maternity leave - they found nothing wrong but I've just remembered they also raised a query when my father died too for inheritance tax. Perhaps I am on some kind of hit list (I don't get tax credits as earn over the limit). Anyway they always take loads of very persona information at HMRC - all the bank statement - they can go back 6 years and without any limit if there is fraud and information about others eg obviously my father in the case above _ again nothing found wrong by the way.

What is concerning is that it is a third party - so might be staff on minimum wage, zero hours, no proper contracts, sub contractors of subcontractors whereas HMRC staff have lots of training on secrecy (eg not even to tell your spouse what you are working on). now I hope which is why I want to read it the HMRC Concentrix contract says they cannot themselves subcontract out and sets out what training on secrecy they must give their staff.

Also there have been loads of scams so not surprising someone seeing a letter from someone who isn't HMRC thinks it's a scam. I forward scam HMRC emails to HMRC about every 2 months which come into my email box from fraudsters pretending to be HMRC.

Exactly Lotus...I don't have concerns about sending information direct to the HMRC and I would be pretty confident about their decision because I'm not defrauding the system.

I have major worries about my personal information being handled by Concentrix employees and even greater concerns about the fact that one of them will be deciding my fate. From my dealings with them so far they seem to be quite incompetent and I'm sure that incompetence will rear its head in the 'decision' making for many of us.

If they are paid on tax credit monies saved, it serves their purpose to 'find' reasons to suspend payments. Even if they only suspend claims for 2/3 months even - while they 'investigate' further - they can show a massive saving and argue that their services are good value. It suits them to create as many suspensions as they can which is why they're using trawling net tactics to catch just one fish.

A 3 month suspension would send most of us into serious arrears with our household bills...never mind permanent suspension.

I am truly truly worried and feel blackmailed into doing something that every nerve in my body is shouting at me not to do.

So, my fantastic ex has text me to say he has another address - how many addresses does one person need???!!! Obviously I didn't know this when I spoke to HMRC or when I sent the information in.

Apparently he has his car insured at that address. Should I call HMRC tomorrow and tell them about this second address? Will car insurance show up in his name at that address, because if it doesn't then there's no point in calling them.

I don't know what database they are looking on. They can see all manner of things but not that he pays council tax and is on the electoral register at an address (his other address). I sent them his council tax, water bill and electoral register letter with his name on for address 1, so should I tell them about address 2...?

Really want him to be found somewhere so this can maybe be closed over the phone, rather than wait until my stuff is on their system and then wait again for someone to look at it and write me a letter.

Shoepolish I think if you've sent stuff for address 1 then leave it,if you send them any other addresses you might complicate things,god knows they don't like anything too complicated,they will be able to find out where he's living through the electrol roll I would imagine.

You're right Morgan. I'm just panicking. I have no idea what he's doing with my address I just hope this can all be sorted.

Fingers crossed for you Shoepolish,speaking from my own experience I don't think they know what they're doing most of the time

Hey Morgan97, i'm guessing you haven't heard anything yet? i just this second got off the phone to them, i knoe its premature but just wanted an update really and they quoted two names of people ive never heard of in my life!!!! I explained i did a homeswap dec 13 and the names didnt even match those people!!!! One was a man and one a womans name lol. I think the previous tenants were here 7 years so god knows. Anyway he asked me if i'd sent my c/tax statements and i told him yeaj the last three years and he told me the thing theyre looking for is the 25% discount for a single person on it. According to him that's the 'icing on the cake'!!!! So what that means for people with landlords god knows?!!!!

No mimz I've not heard anything yet and don't expect them to rush themselves to be honest. My mp says the mandatory reconsideration takes up to 42 days!!! God knows why it takes so long. Their treatment of my case is not acceptable five letters I've sent them n not got one reply yet I know they've received them n they know i know cos I've told em. Trying motto stress cos there's nothing else I can do until they decide to write n let me know what they decide.

I've also had letter from HMRC does that mean that someone's told them I have someone living with me apart from my 19yr old daughter.. As I have been single for years.. I'm so worried

Boobundy it doesn't mean someone's told them anything,they seem to be targeting single claimants at random if its just you and your daughter please don't worry,there's loads of us on this thread that have had these letters just send them what they're asking for you should be ok

well the names they quoted me (one man one woman! i've honestly never heard of in my life and i think the previous tenants were here at least 7 years and the names aren't related to them, i'm wondering if they made them up lol?!! So the postmans JUST been with, lo and behold my information sent back all recorded delivery, which after reading all this thread i was slightly surprised at. But all it had was a covering letter saying no decisions been made yet? Decision on flipping what i ask myself, there's me and my son here and that's it!!! So god knows how long i have to wait before they wave the hand of god at me. Wow Morgan another 42 days, what bollocks is that, and how you s'posed to live in the meantime. My heart goes out to you x

Trying to live on fresh air Mimz,just out of interest when did you send your stuff in? Like I've said in previous posts I don't think they actually know what they're doing half the time. My case alone is a complete shambles,I sent them what I sent in 1012 n it was sufficient then so why not now? They won't answer that one dickheads

I sent my stuff in on the 5th of this month and it was signed for the next day. According to the guy I spoke to today it's been scanned but no decision made yet. he never told me it had already been posted back when i mentioned that i needed it cos it had originals etc. That's y i was surprised when it came recorded early afternoon post today. Doesn't look like anything is missing but I haven't properly checked yet.

Well it seems I am a little further forward in the search for my missing paperwork - sent to Concentrix in January. Had a lady from HMRC Preston call me this morning - they received my complaint letter last week. Apparently my documents were sent back to me in February but because the parcel did not have the correct postage paid it was returned to sender. I was not here to sign for it & no way would I have paid the extra £8.15 they wanted if I had been. So she is now trying to find out where the parcel is & why it has not been re-sent back to me again.

Mimz I got my stuff back with a decision letter with them so fingers crossed its good news for you,maidofkent good luck with your documents at least you know they WERE sent back to you,what a cheek not paying the correct postage as I've said before this is a total shambles from start to finish. I've now got to wait up to 42 days to hear and still struggling to survive bloody stupid

Ooooops mimz just realised I put in a previous post I said I sent stuff in 1012 noooooooo it was 2012 seems that long ago sometimes lol you have to laugh don't you

Morgan97 yep you've definately got to laugh, what did you get a decision to stop your claim straight away included with your information back?

Hi ladies.
Newbie here.

I got a letter today saying they have information a partner is living with me.

This is false I'm a single mother to two young children. Myself and the father are amicable and friendly towards eachother just not in a relationship anymore.

The problem I have is
1 the father works away at various locations so doesn't have a permanent address so I let him have his bank statements sent here as well as his car insurance just as a trusted address I didn't think it would come back on me.
Also he would transfer money to me and I would get it out of bank if he wouldn't be back in area until late after work on Fridays not every week but it was often.

Also my step dad doesn't have a bank account so I allowed him to have his wages put into my old account that is still open and they pay their rent out of my account we also share the same landlord.

All the bills etc are in my name just don't know what to do regarding these issues as my bank statements are going to show loads of money going in and 2 sets of rent going out etc and random money being put in just to be taken out again.

Sorry if this is all rambled I'm just sat here worried now when I just I was helping people.

Hi Bricky249wife the only thing i can say is that tbh i did leave a couple of pages where untracable cash was put in fairly regularly and i couldn't explain it so i though there'd be grief. Thing is I'm disabled and housebound most of the time so i do like a flutter as a hobby and sometimes i do actually win lol. Also there's people put in cash for me or my son's birthdays etc. Thing is ultimately your bank statement should be private unless you're being investigated for fraud etc and it shouldn't matter what goes in or out it's whether they can prove you're living with someone as a couple.

Yes mimz igot the decision letter with my stuff,but I found out my claim had stopped two weeks before I got the letter when I checked my bank,I've been without working and child tax credit since 26th march,it's crucifying me financially I've sent five letters going from pleading my case to complaining no reply then received a mandatory reconsideration form asking me to send what they already know I DON'T have,so I sent what I already sent,plus bank statements,my p60 a letter from the person who's house I live in plus a covering letter. Now it's in the hands of the gods,the waiting continues. Bricky all you can do is send what they ask for and a covering letter explaining everything. Not everyone's case is straightforward myself included but on my own experience I can only say send what they ask for no doubt they will stall and find all sorts of things to ask for but at the end of the day you can only send what you have.