I recieved a letter in Jan this year asking me to confirm / prove my childcare costs. I was happy to do this and sent them my bank statements showing what I'd paid, it was exactly what I had reported when I set up my claim. In march my childcare costs rose above £175 a week which meant I no longer qualified for child care costs and I reported this to hmrc and concentrix. To my surprise neither would action the change of circumstances until concentrix had completed its compliance check!.
It toke concentrix almost 6 months to complete this simple check, and I rang them and hmrc several times during this period to ask them to action the change of circumstances but neither would. After many phone calls to concentrix to get them to hurry up and make a decision, and believe me this wasn't easy, arguing shouting listening to some terrible lies and excuses, I finally received a letter stating they had completed it and there was no change necessary to my claim.
Shortly after hmrc sent me my final assessment with no childcare costs on and an overpayment of £4700, my payment reduced to nothing.
I contacted hmrc who advised me that concentrix told them to remove childcare payments for a whole tax year!!! And that I no longer qualified.
Hmrc advised me to appeal the overpayment and send them all the evidence I had originally sent to concentrix which I have done, they also said I would get a decision in 4 weeks. 6 weeks later I called hmrc who told me, concentrix is dealing with it!! And that was I appealing there decision not hmrc.
I appealed on these grounds
- I reported change of circumstances multiple times and no one actioned it within 30 days
- I paid for childcare for the whole tax year, my costs increased to over £175 in March and I should of recieved a 4 week run on. Therefore no overpayment for the whole tax year - their error.
Whilst I wait for concentrix to deal with this appeal, hmrc are deducting £50 a week from my new claim (child costs now reduced to under £175pw). I'm sure they will take another 6 months.
I'm sure this company are just stopping claims and creating fictitious over payments to meet there targets. And the lies they tell you on the phone are outrageous. At one point someone told me " hmrc have a secret department that tells concentrix what to do with there compliance checked claims". Maybe they do!.
Anyway, I can't believe that my claim had been stopped and overpayment raised when I was entitled to claim and can prove what I had paid. Concentrix have created a complete mess of a simple compliance check and are now subjecting me to overpayment recovery for a none existent overpayment. They clearly have no regards to tax credit law and don't follow it.
Has any one else had this crap?. Does any one know if hmrc are meant to deal with overpayment appeals?... It's all very stressful