child tax credit

[triplets]

Has anyone yet received their CTC, mine was supposed to be paid into my account on the 2nd May and as yet there is no sign of it. The free phone line is constantly engaged.

Yes we have started getting it - it was paid into the bank about 3 weeks before we got the paper work & it was only by chance that I saw it had been paid in!! My sister has not yet received hers & has tried for the last few days to get through to the helpline & no joy. Useless aren't they? Hope they sort it out for you soon.

You're not alone, another parenting board has got a whole forum for tax credits and it is very active. I was fortunate that I got my weekly paid credits on 9th April with a letter 3 days later and have continued to get them weekly ever since. I'm still waiting for my NHS charges exemption letter and I need to phone up to change my circumstances but I can't be bothered trying to get through at the moment.

We haven't got it or the letter detailing payments Triplets. IIRC from the other thread yours should be significantly more than ours (expect to get £541 a year) so its presumably quite important to you. At work 2 have got it and 2 haven't with no basis on need or when we filled the forms in or even alphabetically!

we got a giro cheque after asking for it to be paid into the bank - watch your post!

We've had 3 giros so far- very nice

I've had nothing, nada, rien. I'm a civil servant, I should be easy to process!!

Can you believe this one then, I got a letter today anouncing that my credits will total £7085!! Wow

However I know I am only due £541

SO after an hour of trying the helpline, I got through to someone who couldn't help me. However I asked them one question 'how long will it take them to find out they have screwed up?', you see I have an offset mortgage, so if I put all the monet into my savings, it will off set against my mortgage!! I will earn out of their mistake. As long as I transfer the money straight away, so it is not in my current account, it can just sit there until they find me. I hope it takes months!!! Apparently they can only ask for what they paid, not interest!!!!

I can't be bothered to spend hours on the phone rectifying their problem, what does anyone else think??

Crunchie - what a result

I would leave it against my mortgage and wait until they asked for it back. With the current state of our civil service you could have it for years. Apologies to any efficient civil servants out there

WE started getting our ctc and wtc paid into the bank account at the start of April. However as of Monday my hours go up. I've been trying to phone them to let them know but all I get is a message from the BT lady saying that the network is busy. Does anyone know the best time to try and get through or is it like this all the time?
Obviously I need to tell them asap as I don't want them paying in money that we don't qualify for and then have a lot of hassle having to pay it back. And I'm also annoyed that they don't have a free phone number.

Dh and I both got letters today asking to confirm our address/ni number/name as they don't "agree with their records." I got a call asking me the same thing about a month ago. I think they're just stalling for time.

Hi to you all. Well after three days of trying I eventually got to speak to someone who told me that my money had been paid in on the 2nd May, it hadnt. He then said it had been paid into an account that turned out to be my husbands, not mine! So on checking his account we found that the first payment which they said I would get on the 2nd May had been paid in, but then two days later two further payments had also been paid in, a total of over £800! So today I spent with my finger on the redial button, finally got through and was told that my application had been reviewed and that I was to get £20 a month less! I asked about the two extra payments and he said he didnt know why I had got them, he would find out and I would receive a letter! What a mess!

We applied online last November time, got a form asking for confirmation on a few things in February, they sent through the confirmation in March and I didn't realise I had to sign the form and send it back (mainly because I didn't read it properly), we sent it back at the end of April and they still paid us the money on 30th April. We have both got a letter today (separate letters) telling us that they couldn't process our application because we had applied more than once each (we hadn't) and they hadn't got enough details to process the application. I'd love to know who they think they're paying the money too. I'm tempted to send both letters back with a rude one from us telling them to get people in who know what they're doing. After hearing of your experiences on the trying to phone I'm not going to bother. I doubt I'll even reply to the letter as I really can't be bothered. They're paying me the money so that's all that matters.

I need to ring to change my circumstances, but as the increased income will be virtually cancelled out by childcare costs I'm in no hurry.

I understand that the phone lines are at their least busiest at 8am on a sunday morning but I haven't tried myself. I have also heard that you can substitute the last two digits of the number with 42 to get through on the helpline used by CABs and Job Centres. You might get told off for doing so as the public aren't supposed to use it, but if you only have to queue for 30 minutes instead of repeatedly trying it might just be worth it. Most of the people that I have heard of who tried it did get some proper advice when they finally got through.

We sent our form off before Christmas, had a letter shortly after telling us they had received it and would write to us again starting in January.
They took the increased tax out of DH's pay, on 15th April(estimated about £50 less), and we had still heard nothing, but he was told by someone at work, that everyone would get paid on 1st May, I thought I'd believe it when I saw it !!
I checked our account online on the evening of the 1st and we had been paid £221, as we had not received a letter we asumed this was Aprils and Mays together.
We got a letter Thursday, we'll receive another payment of £333, then £318 every 4 weeks after that. It seemed alot but I checked all the details they had and it seems to be right.

PamT, it might be worth contacting them, because we only get that much, because of the amount of child care we pay, so increased childcare payments may be to your advantage.

We've been having big problems with CTC too.(big surprise!) Finally got through to them and was told "You will probably get the money through before the paperwork but it will come" Paper work arrives with big mistakes. My under 1 supplement finishes before DS3 turns 1, I lose DS1 money when he turns 9 (they thought he was turning 19), letter addressed to Miss B instead of Mrs M etc.etc I phoned at 7pm was 'in a queue' for 45 minutes but it was better than that BT lady!!. No time is best to ring I have tried at different times. 8am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm all the same.

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Just have to add my moan about this. Dp has been taxed much much more and we haven't had a penny in ctc or wtc. I sent the form in months ago and shortly after we had a letter saying we hadn't given our bank details, i was pretty sure we had but replied anyway. Then, yesterday i get another letter saying that some of my details on the claim don't match their records i.e ni number, name, address and d.o.b. They had most of that printed on the top of the letter and i most certainly haven't changed anything aaarggh! what are they doing at all? throwing all the forms in apile on the floor and playing guess who?
anyway, sorry to bore you all but i enjoyed the rant.

does anyone EVER answer the helpline number? been trying all day

We are having problems filling in the form. I don't have my P60 for the right year bracket. Besides our income is SO different from then anyway so we will have to re-apply immediately. Been trying to contact then to find out what to do but to no avail. I also cn't find any e-mail address on the website I could use instead. Can't imagine there is any point in writing to them either is there?

I tried them non-stop today for 1 hour but no luck. Now and then I would get through, press the relevant options, then be told they are too busy to take the call - AAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH I have written to them as I've been trying for 4 weeks now to get through - don't expect they'll reply though. The whole new system is a total shambles, they should of left it as it was.

I tried to phone all weekend at different times and still didn't get through. I spoke to someone at work today who works partime at the citizens advice bureau and she told me that even though they have a special number they still don't get through half the time. She advised that I write to them but I hate to think how long it will be before I get an answer. It looks like I will have to write to them and then not spend any of the money that we are receiving because I know that they will want to claim some of it back. So technically we're not going to be any better off as we can't spend any of it. I wish they'd left it alone it was fine the way it was.

I would advise everyone to write, i got through to them on the phone today and what has happended is this! ... they have brought in a call centre to deal with the demand, but this call cenntre cannot deal with any information that you need to give them, our award is totally wrong, wrong income, childcare hours and hours husband works! The connection on the recorded message to connect to inland revenue isn't working. save your stress levels and write with formal complaints, why should parents put up with this.

Well, I emailed them, got a reply within about 10 minutes saying I would get a reply shortly. Got a 'fuller' reply a few days later saying I would be advised of my reward soon so....

Tsk, civil servants eh!

Claireandrich, WHY haven't you got your P60. You're supposed to keep them for 6 years.... You can take the details off your March 2002 payslip if you've got it. Otherwise you can ask your own tax office for the information. (they will send it to you- they can't give it you over the phone)

Linzoid- if the details don't match it probably means that either the address on your tax records is wrong (ie you didn't tell them when you moved) & doesn't correspond with this application; you're using the wrong National Insurance number (it's very easy to transpose the numbers or get one digit wrong); or something similar.

I have received three individual cheques for £1.34, £4.50 and £15.something! With no explanation, although we have now had the paper work through it doesn't seem to match these amounts. I filled in the forms with all details for the tax year requested, but have stopped working since then and therefore our circumstances have changed somewhat not only in terms of salary but childcare too. I've spent the last week trying to get through to the helpline, constantly pressing re-dial. The one time I did get through to somewone she said I had pressed the wrong option number and had to call again! The whole thing is a shambles!