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

Just a thought .. With how many people have been issued with all these false accusations weather it be living with partners or proving hours of work etc .... How long and how much paper work they actually have to look at ? The fact that someone else gets to make decisions about OUR life's ? With the amount they are having to do they will be skimming bank statements and making their minds up like flipping a coin ?! This is what concerns me the most . How many family's are going to end up Genuinley homeless ?how many children will go without food ? How many people won't even be Able to carry on going to work because they can't afford to put 1 let alone 2 or 3 children into child care ? I'm confused as to weather they are making decisions based on pieces of paper and then its final without either asking for more additional evidence or explanations ? These are my concerns

Not only that ... But life Unfortuatly is very complicated . It seems that when you have children together and you then become be a single parent you must completely disconnect yourself from them ... In a way yeah that's true but is a bank transfer of maintence every month and a random amount here or there for agreed trainers or a said holiday really going to jeopardise claiming as single ? Is your ex being on a mortgage for the sake of you not loosing the roof over your childrens heads really mean you live together ?, is the fact that your landlord once lived in the property and still gets post really enough to determine he lives as your address ? It's ludicrous . it's like you cannot be civil parents or even a normal human being and Honest people are becoming ill from this !!! It's awful ! You go over and over innocent information thinking will they even belive the truth ? So many people cannot actually prove anything , as for the ones that can .. I'm sure it still won't even be good enough .

Hi All, I am very stressed as I received one of this letters as well claiming that I have a partner. I have lived with my mum and brother for 2 years to be able to save for a deposit to buy a house. I work 40 hours a week and all the bills are shared but I have to pay for my son things on my own. I didnt lied on my tax credit and I gave all the information they asked me for. I have send all the stuff last week. I haven't heard from them yet. I have a large amount of money on my saving account as all I have done in the past 2 years was save, save and save. No nights out, expensive clothe or fancy holidays. I am very worried they will say I have to pay back. This is all the money I saved for a house for me and my son. I have shared a house to be able to save and have less expenses. They never say anything about sharing a house on the form but still stressful. I don't want to be the one to tell my son there will be no more our house after all this saving. :(:( This is actually making me depressed. I don't even claim working tax credit, I only receive Child tax credit and they did all the calculation not me.

Completely agree with everything Annoyed says. I have sent everything off, no choice really, but am so, so worried, even though l have done nothing wrong! x

They obviously havent got any evidence , i got my letter 2 weeks ago , i rang hmrc directly and they said that on their system i informed them on the day my son left home and college , they want paperwork from april 2014 till jan this year , for 7 of those months i havent had any money and no one lives here and i pay full rent and council tax , where do they get their evidence from or does anyone else think that someone has reported them ?

They should be more specific and name the person that they beleive to live at the address . If we are having to hand out numerous amounts of evidence And personal stuff then they should tell you what they know first. But what do they know ?? I'm not sure I beleive them . I rememeber many years ago I received a letter from council tax for me to confirm that I was still living as a single person. . Was a very simple letter and no accusations like the cocentrix one . Just more of a confirmation , probably to check too and see if people will own up. . That's fine by me. A signature and that was it . Concentrix should say we beleive MR. Or MRS ......is living at your address. Then we can maybe give them more information . As previous comments it could be landlords ex tenants ex husbands etc. a lot of people are still financilay linked to ex partners as they have no choice . Concentrix shoud surely be aware of these things .My maintenance payments are paid directly into my bank by my ex . You can even see his name on the statement.
Another thing maintenance payments are "disregarded " income so should not be shown to anyone !! Nobody's business !!

My letter does name the person, my STBEX, he hasn't lived here for 10 + years! I too have had the letter re Council tax asking me to confirm my single parent status, no hassle, just a signature.

Katy69 that's the same issue I have re maintenance payments, as you so rightly say maintenance is not regarded when it comes to calculation of tax credits, so it has nothing to do with them!!

Well I have decided that I'm not going to send in my letter from xx to say how many ££ I receive every month . Will send the divorce letter. Even my mum and closest friends don't know how much I get every month lol Housng benefit used to add this into calculation but that changed around 2008 . Tax credits don't ask for this when assessing your clam so it's totaly incorrect of concentrix asking for this.

Hi, apologies for posting here as I have no kids but I have had a letter too about living with someone. Yes, I do - my 85 year old parents. And that's it - no a sniff of a relationship. My parents house was bought new so no chance of a previous tenant.
I spoke to a friend who used to work in tax office and she said concentrix are doing this without much training and have targets to meet for the number of letters they send out. So they see another name on electoral register or credit agency and automatically send out a letter.
So nothing to worry about if you do live alone but a flaming waste of our time proving something they would know if they did any research. And flipping annoying to be accused of living with my Dad! (and Mum!)

Do you have a link to this information? - Itsgoingtoreindeer - I can't find it.
Collecting as much details as I can.

You are right th staff have little or no training. Their employee reports are horrific! Concentrix is not a company in the UK. Concentrix Corporation is in America. The subsidiary company in the UK who got the contract with HMRC only have a net worth £22,000 and £1 of assets. It is obviously not doing the work. So it has, at minimum, been subcontracted to one of their other companies. On that basis, as they operate in 24 countries, with many more companies in each, it is reasonable to assume that your information is not staying securely in the UK. To make it more confusing all this is wholly owned by another American Corporation Synnex.

Unless enough information has been provided as to the information requester's identity, it is your legal right to be satisfied before you provide any information. Back to who are these people? This is also not mentioning all the other human rights and legal issues....

I've had this letter as I'm a single parent and I had to send off bank statements, bills, rent statements, council tax etc. I didn't bother trying to call them to discuss it, just sent what was asked for by recorded delivery (I always deal with govt agencies by recorded delivery). They were satisfied with that and my claim has continued as before. I've always been pretty careful though not to allow any financial ties at my address, not to allow anyone else to use my address for deliveries, and to cut financial ties with my ex, because a friend works for DWP and warned me about it years ago.

I do have a boyfriend but he lives at his own owned house and doesn't have his name on anything here. I didn't mention this when I wrote back to them as it wasn't asked and it's none of their business (and wouldn't affect my claim at all).

Thanks very much Itsgoingtoreindeer that is really interesting. £75 million contract which is made up of an 'undisclosed' commission on what they recover. So exactly what are they trying to recover? This could be more than a billion?

The criteria for awarding the contract puts Quality at 15% and Security at 10%...so you can imagine!!! The contract includes: 'The Contractor is required to make decisions regarding tax credits entitlement'

The company awarded the contract is worthless and sub-contracting to at least one other. Not sure that any of this legally complies with the Act that permits it. There are many contradictions.
If it was all on the up and up why is all the information buried and disguised? Why no proper sources of information?

The recent 'Direct Recovery of Debts' legislation allows them to raid bank accounts and savings to recover what they decide is due.

I agree that dealing with a properly trained officer of HMRC, who requests 'reasonable' evidence to support a claim (and presumably has signed the Official Secrets Act) is acceptable....but an undefined, profit driven company whose sole aim is to recover as much as they can by any means, using untrained staff to make decisions on your lives is totally unacceptable. From what I've read the staff don't last more than a few months as they are brow beaten by management to achieve unattainable targets....not to mention all the other questionable activities.

If you can find the Oracle article that would be great.

I've been following this thread and feel for everyone who is going through this 'prove you're not guilty' exercise. I've been worried for a couple of weeks about what they are trying to find out - my disabled brother was my supposed partner - I took a morgage out a few years back with him to help him pay off some debts and this has been thrown up on their database. (There is no way he is supporting me and my son, if anything I help him out.)

Sent a long letter today together with information to support my address - when I rang was asked to send a bank statement, mortgage statement and household bills to prove where I live (they lost interest in the supposed partner when I explained but clearly weren't going to 'give in.') I've only sent bank statements for the last 6 weeks - not sure what they prove anyway - and asked them to tell me what it is they're looking for.
I am not part of a couple, pay my own way in a family household and haven't received tax credits for over 6 months anyway.
If they want further info' then I'm going on the offensive as they are using fear to bully and harass vulnerable people.
Would love to hear updates from people as they get replies - will post an update when I hear from them - a few sleepless night suntil then ...

I sent all my documents off yesterday too, cost me £3.48 1st class recorded. Has to be back by 9th Feb.
the lettet accuses me of living with someone but doesnt say who!
Im a self employed single mum of a 9 yr old.
I run my own little cleaning services where I work 16 hours a week.
I get wtc and ctc, plus some part housing and council tax benefit.
It took me hours printing out all my paperwork!

I too have had this letter yesterday after me ringing tax credits last week to put my new partner on my claim.
They couldn't do it then as the mortgage hadn't completed and he hadn't moved in and before I could ring them with the actual date I get this letter!!
Im assuming Ive been flagged up due to me adding my partner to one of my bank accounts so that bills can be paid jointly from here from now. so what the last 12 months of my own bank statements is going to prove I don't know!!
ill send them what they have requested or what I have and see where it takes us.
absolute joke. trying to make an honest living for yourself and children, having to count every penny then get accused of this. im livid.

Does anyone know what they are looking for on a bank account statement regarding undisclosed partner .is it a joint account.? If you have your name only on your account are they going to be snooping through every transaction ? for example if they can see the name of my ex partner paying money monthly or somebody else depositing money into your account. What will there reaction be ? My dad Put £100 in to my account for my birthday ! Will they question that ? Will tax credits be stopped until they are satisfied that every suspicious name on account is investigetd. It's 2015. Pretty much everybody uses online banking nowadays. So surely they must realise this . Still can't work out how that can prove whether I'm living with someone or not .