Retrospective awards granted, but will i get payments?

nb123

hi, in 2005 we were being chased for an overpayment of 4k. our claim was stopped and we were doorstepped by the taxman (reason being they had been using a previous address even after sending correspondence to our new address). We subsequently appealed.

The claim was not restarted, we never received anything regarding the outcome of the appeal and no further attempts have been made to reclaim the overpayment.

In 2008 we decided to try and claim again and did so without problem. In march of this year they asked for our income for the period 05/06 06/07 and 07/08. We have then since been sent through award notifications for the period from the claim being stopped to being restarted in 08. Roughly 6k in awards, but no money has been sent for the periods. I presumed as we were awarded for these periods we would receive the money. When i called an embryo at the tax credits they had know idea.

The only information i ever got regarding the appeal was after phoning and asking if anything had ever happened with the outcome. The person on the phone was actually pretty helpful and she could she on her screen it had been sent 'somewhere' as the appeal had justifiable grounds, that was also in March this year.

In short; has anyone ever came across this situation? are we likely to get the credits to match the awards or are they just letting me know what i could have received if they hadn't been incompetent? surely if they award retrospectively they have got to pay, even if it was 4 years ago?

ErisBadb

Hi - a couple of things:
what does 'and we were doorstepped by the taxman' mean?
By the sounds of it you need to chase up the appeal. Surely the fact that you have been sent an award for the time you were appealing about would help to show entitlement.
Usually you are given an appeal decision and the Revenue would have to follow that through straight away, unless they want to appeal it to a higher authority. ( Then it would be suspended until that appeal was determined. )
I'm not speaking from experience I'm afraid but from what I can see is you need to find out what is happening with the appeal.
If you're having trouble gettinga straight answer from tax credits try the CAB as they usually have a different no. they can call which gats through to more knowledgeable TC advisers. ( This is from experience )
One last thing usually in award notices they say how much but they also give dates of when you can expect the payments.......

nb123

Thanks for the advice. You are right we need to chase the appeal and ask for the outcome in writing. tbh i think it has slipped through the net untill i called up and we wern't exactly pro active about the whole thing. I just wondered anyone had come accross it it before. I have just looked at the part 3, and it does say amount still to be paid from previous years, but not when.

Regarding being doorstepped, it was literally that. Because tax credits had been using the wrong address they had to investigate where we now lived and an hmrc employee turned up at the door hand delivering a 7 day demand. she was great, wasnt surprised at the error and gave the forms and some really good advice regarding the appeal. Thanks again.