Child Tax credit - 6 months and waiting!!!!

bluenitsuj

My partner and I are entitled to Child Tax credits, and this is all we claim for, yet every year after being paid what we are due, we always get a letter saying they have overpaid as we are no longer responsible for a child. Apparently our child vanishes and no longer exists. Anyway, in February 2010 we got a letter saying the above and that we have been overpaid £464. Of course I appealed and sent the original birth certificate as requested and received it back after they acknowledged it. That was 4 months ago and we have heard nothing, also no payment so they would have to back date our payments.

The reason I write is because I phone weekly but get no answers, the morons that work there are as helpful as a chocolate kettle. I have previously got my MP involved but unfortunately he got no where and also lost the last elections.

Does anyone know the next step. :mad::mad::mad:

delboysmith

You call the contact staff morons do you not realize by now the contact center has nothing to do with your appeal. It is done by independent tribunal nothing to do with TCO so you calling is pointless.

You don't say why you did not respond to at least two letters tco would have sent you out before asking for more details about your child. They do not remove children without good cause. The appeal would have given you an estimate timescale. When was that due?

To progress chase your appeal write to TCO would will pass it on and ask for an update or your appeal.

moc247

i had a similar prob with ctc they are not very compotent and they always say they are looking at it and to be patient yeah try telling that to your gas and electricity company that would go down well. what i did was sent an email of complaint in bold letters and i also sent a recorded delivery of my email three days later so i knew they would definatley have it as they signed for it and within 10 days i was paid all my money as i had went to the tiop and complained. i didnt know who the manager or who was at the top so i just addressed it to the address on the tax credit letters and wrote at the top the complaints manager and in red ink wrote urgent in bold letters lol! think that scared them into solving my claim after 3 months

good luck give it a go let us know if you have any joy i think you will

moc247

Milkybarsareonme

Go to the 'write to them' website and see who your newly elected MP is and inform them of your situation. I can bet your claim will be sorted within a week. Mine was when i was messed around. If i hadn't written to my MP, i would have lost over £900. Hope that helps.

bluenitsuj

delboysmith wrote: »

You call the contact staff morons do you not realize by now the contact center has nothing to do with your appeal. It is done by independent tribunal nothing to do with TCO so you calling is pointless.

You don't say why you did not respond to at least two letters tco would have sent you out before asking for more details about your child. They do not remove children without good cause. The appeal would have given you an estimate timescale. When was that due?

To progress chase your appeal write to TCO would will pass it on and ask for an update or your appeal.

I did respond to all letters sent. They requested a birth certificate or passport, which we do not have as my partners ex has this. This was told to whoever i spoke to on the phone and they said ok just explain on the form, which we did. I got another letter saying that they need the original birth cert but as they did not have it that they will stop payments and we are no longer responsible for a child.,which is ridiculous as we are rsponsible for her. I told them this, we then went to the town hall and got a cert from town hall and sent this, they received it and sent it back with acknowledgement. Obviously we are on appeal at the moment and I have since written to the complaints department about how long this is taking.

Through all this I have been told by the 'morons' that this all arose because they do random checks on children to combat fraud. No problem with that but why not request the certificate or passport from my partners ex, instead of hounding us? Noanswer to this or anything over the years.:mad:

The timescale given was for us to hear by the 23rd June, but of course when I ring I am told this is just an estimate. why bother giving an estimate?

bluenitsuj

I still have had no response from the appeals tribunal. Does nayone have a phone number/contact I can get through to to complain further and find out what is going on?:mad:

DX2

bluenitsuj wrote: »

I did respond to all letters sent. They requested a birth certificate or passport, which we do not have as my partners ex has this. This was told to whoever i spoke to on the phone and they said ok just explain on the form, which we did. I got another letter saying that they need the original birth cert but as they did not have it that they will stop payments and we are no longer responsible for a child.,which is ridiculous as we are rsponsible for her. I told them this, we then went to the town hall and got a cert from town hall and sent this, they received it and sent it back with acknowledgement. Obviously we are on appeal at the moment and I have since written to the complaints department about how long this is taking.

Through all this I have been told by the 'morons' that this all arose because they do random checks on children to combat fraud. No problem with that but why not request the certificate or passport from my partners ex, instead of hounding us? Noanswer to this or anything over the years.:mad:

The timescale given was for us to hear by the 23rd June, but of course when I ring I am told this is just an estimate. why bother giving an estimate?

Do you think your partners ex may still be claiming the CTC?

There may well be a disputed claim re shared care. :think:

someonehadmyusername

havent read all replies but if someone else is trying to claim for that child and giving good proof of responsibility (like passport etc) as well as saying they have main responsibility for that child, tax credits may decide your not responisble and remove child from your claim unless you prove otherwise

AnxiousMum

It would be seen as 'normal' situation that a parent who has care and responsibility of a child would be in possession of not only the child, but the important documents that are needed for things such as school registration, applying for chid benefit etc. Did you not have to send in originals when you applied for child benefit?

Just as an aside - you may have gotten some more helpfu advice from people who actually work in TC offices and spend much of their time on here of their own accord, helping people such as yourself out. However, referring to them as 'morons' is not likely to get this help! I know it's frustrating - but you can't really be offensive to those who are here to help you.
I would contact the new MP for the area, and get them on the case. But if it is a case of disputed responsibility of care......could be that the other parent HAS been able to provide the paperwork needed to get their claim going?

bluenitsuj

AnxiousMum wrote: »

It would be seen as 'normal' situation that a parent who has care and responsibility of a child would be in possession of not only the child, but the important documents that are needed for things such as school registration, applying for chid benefit etc. Did you not have to send in originals when you applied for child benefit?

Just as an aside - you may have gotten some more helpfu advice from people who actually work in TC offices and spend much of their time on here of their own accord, helping people such as yourself out. However, referring to them as 'morons' is not likely to get this help! I know it's frustrating - but you can't really be offensive to those who are here to help you.
I would contact the new MP for the area, and get them on the case. But if it is a case of disputed responsibility of care......could be that the other parent HAS been able to provide the paperwork needed to get their claim going?

First of all I do apologise if I offended anyone but it was an angry spur of the moment thing.

We do not and never have claimed child benefit as we are not entitled. As far as we know this is not a disputed claim with the other parent. We have received child tax credits for many years and no circumstances have changed. The childs registered address for school, doctor, dentist etc is our address. The fact that we have been paid for years, it then gets stopped every year, we appeal and then usually win and the payments start again all confuses me. We have been assured the only reason the payments were stopped were because we did not initially provide the documents asked, which we now have ( several months ago ).
Re: we should have the paperwork, it would be easier to get blood out of stone rather than the other parent giving them to us.

I have now gone through my MP but am still interested if there is a different phone number for me to try.

DX2

bluenitsuj wrote: »

First of all I do apologise if I offended anyone but it was an angry spur of the moment thing.

We do not and never have claimed child benefit as we are not entitled. As far as we know this is not a disputed claim with the other parent. We have received child tax credits for many years and no circumstances have changed. The childs registered address for school, doctor, dentist etc is our address. The fact that we have been paid for years, it then gets stopped every year, we appeal and then usually win and the payments start again all confuses me. We have been assured the only reason the payments were stopped were because we did not initially provide the documents asked, which we now have ( several months ago ).
Re: we should have the paperwork, it would be easier to get blood out of stone rather than the other parent giving them to us.

I have now gone through my MP but am still interested if there is a different phone number for me to try.

Eh? I think you will find that even Posh n Becks are entitled to CB. First mistake! CB is a universal benefit for parents. So if you aren't claiming CB then who is?