specialist team for tax credits renewal (merged)

shelleps

i sent in my paperwork that they reqested 2 weeks ago and they still havent got it. i never sent it registered post so am worried its got lost.!!!
will try ringing them again next week, see if its trned up somewhere

SusanM_3

I eventually got through to the specialist team. I'm still no nearer than I was before. Lady I spoke to said I should have received a letter - no I haven't! When I told her that one of the advisors on the helpline number had said my claim was being checked because it was high value, she said this is incorrect. Apparently my claim has now to be checked by someone else. They will ring me but she didn't know when that will be!! Could be up to 7 days - give me strength :mad: I asked if I could ring them and she said she didn't have a number only their email addy. So, I now have to wait for a call. Am I supposed to sit by the phone?

She did say about 30% of renewals are being checked this year to make sure they have the correct information. It will be time for the next renewal at this rate! It might be a bit over the top but I'm so angry, I might just put my MP in the picture. I know my payments haven't stopped but it would be a right mess if they were over paying me. Plus any increase in payments affect my council tax payments.

honey**

honey** wrote: »

finaly got to speak to speacialist team on monday apart from telling me off in a very nice way as i havent done my self employed tax return yet
lady said she would finalise that all for me now so i didnt have to chase it up with lots of phone calls.

fingers crossed we will see what happens

no childcare involved though and did take me a few attempts to get them.

mines all sorted got through to them monday ....small random amount in my account yesterday rang them claims all finalised told me what payments i will be getting when and award notices on the way.

took 5 days :T

gill2000ste

I have read this thread with great interest....

I too received the specialist letter too not long before i got my renewal pack but me being me i just shredded it thinking that it was only for people who had problems with the whole process, im not saying im better then everyone but ive been getting tax credits for years now and ive never had a problem yet and its always been finalised within 2 weeks at the most....

Anyway i phoned up the mainline to do my renewal and the nice young man said thankyou, etc that will be processed for you, nearly 8 weeks later im still waiting and its beginning to make me ill...

I have phoned back several times, not every day just once a week to check on the progress and get told each time its still being processed anyway ive been told not to bother phoning back until after the end of july if it hasnt been finalised by then.

I have also explained about the specialist letter and ive asked them if they can give me the number which they wont ( why is that ?) they say there is no point as its being proccessed even though they admitted to me that my failure to phone the specailist team in the 1st place is whats causing the hold up...

Im also pregnant & with baby being due in september im going to have to go through the whole phoning them up again, which im not looking forward to...

My partner is self employed and his money for last year was a bit lower then usual but when you take into account that his a taxi driver and last years fuel prices were quite high then that should be self explanatory...

I really hope someone can give me some advice as in what to do next as im actually starting to get myself into a state, i cant sleep or eat and if i wasnt pregnant i would probably look like i was wasting away...

gill.x:(

toonbaz

SusanM wrote: »

I eventually got through to the specialist team. I'm still no nearer than I was before. Lady I spoke to said I should have received a letter - no I haven't! When I told her that one of the advisors on the helpline number had said my claim was being checked because it was high value, she said this is incorrect. Apparently my claim has now to be checked by someone else. They will ring me but she didn't know when that will be!! Could be up to 7 days - give me strength :mad: I asked if I could ring them and she said she didn't have a number only their email addy. So, I now have to wait for a call. Am I supposed to sit by the phone?

She did say about 30% of renewals are being checked this year to make sure they have the correct information. It will be time for the next renewal at this rate! It might be a bit over the top but I'm so angry, I might just put my MP in the picture. I know my payments haven't stopped but it would be a right mess if they were over paying me. Plus any increase in payments affect my council tax payments.

I'm sure your MP will be disgusted to find out the tax credits office are being a bit more thorough in checking people are getting there correct entitlement this year.
i appreciate peoples frustrations but is it really such a travesty that you have to wait a little longer whilst still receiving your payments in order that they can ensure people are getting things right.

compoff

There is very little to worry about, providing all the details on your claim are correct. These checks do take some time, but they are being done to correct as many incorrect claims as possible. As I say, provided you have always declared the correct information, everything will be fine. However, if you have not declared the correct information, then you should be worrying and rightfully so.

SusanM_3

Toonbaz - sometimes the only way to get something sorted out is to get the help of your MP and although this isn't a "travesty", I don't find it acceptable to be waiting over 7 weeks and to be getting nowhere. Helpline number don't seem to know what is going on, why haven't I received the letter mentioned yesterday and when exactly is someone going to ring me? I'm sure if we were 7 weeks late renewing our claim, we would soon hear from them. Yes, by all means check on my information, but let me know what is happening.

My MP was brilliant 5 years ago when Tax Credits messed my claim up. Let's face it, we pay our MP's salary so we have every right to ask for help. I've wasted enough time ringing the helpline number and where's it got me?

toonbaz

i agree that MP's are there to use when you have a problem and certainly if your claim had been messed up previously then its great that your MP helped you out, however in this case i really think you would be wasting your MP's time, you are still receiving payments you are not suffering hardship they are simply making sure that the most valuable claims are correct, if you can take credit for paying your MP's wages then i can take credit for paying for your benefits and i would rather see these sort of checks happening to make sure claims worth thousands of pounds are correct.
i'm not having a go at you personally, i just cant understand why so many people are so stressed out at having to wait for an award notice. people who receive many thousands of pounds each yr and expect it just to be handed out without any checks.

SusanM_3

I don't expect to be "handed out" payments for which I might add, I'm fully entitled to, without checks being made. It's good that checks are made. I too pay tax! I don't even mind waiting but when they haven't a clue what is happening to my claim and give me wrong information, that's what I find unacceptable. To not have heard from them for over 7 weeks, apart from my calls to helpline, is just bad service.

toonbaz

if you keep calling the main helpline to ask what is going on then you will quite rightly be told that they dont have a timescale and dont know what is going on with your renewal, that is because the only info they will have is that it is being dealt with by specialist renewals team. the only people that will give you a real idea of what is happening and when you can expect it to be resolved is the specialist renewals team. if you dont already have the number i would imagine there will be a few on here who can pass it on to you.