tax credits suspended payments

wordsfan

My sister has had her child tax credits suspended. An anon call was made to tax credits saying she was claiming fraudulently as she didn't have children. Which is nonsense. Her ex left in may and she has been raising my 2 nephews alone since then as her ex isn't helping at all. We suspect it was one of the ex's crowd that made the call. Its royally messed things up for her. She Complained immediately, was asked to provide evidence of the children, birth certificates, confirmation from the hospital they were born in and her current gp. She sent all this in, then they asked for more paperwork, child benefit letters I think it was (which has also been suspended as TCO contacted them too). Its now also meant her claim for income support has been refused which consequently also means she can't get LHA.

Her solicitor has said she needs to give them the time they've said it'll take em to sort it, which is another 9 weeks!! before she can take it any further. Meanwhile my sis is trying to manage on £33 a week with my mum helping as much as she can.

Can anyone advise? please?

[Deleted User]

only thing i can think of is that she contacts her MP see if he/she can get things speeded up,but its a long shot

KatieMc83_2

MP, local paper, anything. A formal complaint and calling daily to speak to supervisers may also speed things up. That's absolutely disgusting! Your poor sister x

Nitha

poor thing. I can't believe that a birth certificate isn't enough! I bet she wants to take the kids over to the tax credits office in person!

I agree MP is the way to go

[Deleted User]

There is more to this than has been told.

TCO do not suspend the award whilst investigating disputed responsibility.

They will only terminate or suspend the award where they believe there is organised fraud (by 3rd party) or if the customer has failed to respond to letters issued by TCO by the set deadline.

It is possible that both parents claimed child benefit and CTC for the children and only one person has replied to the letters. If only one person replies it is possible that both have been payments have been awarded to that person - in this case the ex-partner.

If there is a compliance investigation she should contact the compliance officer immediately to try to get this sorted. If it is not a compliance issue she should maybe make an appointment at her local enquiry centre to try to get it sorted. She should take all relevant documentaion with her including ID.

Whilst this is being sorted there may be a chance of getting an emergency payment at the enquiry centre - although this will be down to the manager of the centre to decide.