tax credit phone call charges refunded??

nextyeartina

hi

have i heard right. martin lewis said on GMTV that if you can prove you have phoned tax credits on many occassions, gone through all the options then they hung up, you could possibly get your money back. it's seen as a money making scam. my phone bill has doubled from £45 to £98 this month :mad:. i'm having to pay for an itemised bill then i'm going to try to claim my calls to tc back

t x

System

I didn't see the item but I think there's no harm in trying.
HMRC (the government) in general want everyone to use the phone to contact them but can't cope when they do so perhaps a few thousand people claiming their phone calls back might make them sit up and take notice.

delboysmith

You can try. but the more people that send in claims like this the more staff will be move to deal with this and therefore less staff on phone and processing office and hence your just compounding the situation.

The government does not make money off the calls so how can it be a money making scam?

corbyboy

How certain are you that this is where the extra £43 has come from?

I had to phone them a few weeks back and had trouble getting through. The call was lasting 1 min 10 secs before being cut off, which gets charged as 2 mins by Virgin Media. They charge 10p per minute and a 10p connection fee so I was paying 30 per call.

To get a bill of £43 I would have had to call them 143 times.

This is with Virgin Media. With BT calls to 0845 numbers are free.

So who is your telephone provider and did you really make that number of calls?

AnxiousMum

I guess you could try as above.....but I thought that our choice of telephone provider and what fees we have to pay/don't have to pay was up to us? I'm not forced to have a provider that charges exhorbitant connection fees etc. for calls I make. Maybe have a look at your telephone provider and look to change to a more affordable calling plan?

nextyeartina

the reason why it is being called a money making scheme is because you go through all the options before being cut off. when you call somewhere like tax credits, you should know within the first 30/40 seconds whether your call will be accepted or not.

i'm happy with my telephone provider & calling plan thank you anxiousmum.

i'm with virgin media & i did make a lot of attempts to get through to tax credits. don't forget the extra £43 also includes vat.

Duncombe

Im not sure I understand why people should be entitled to claim call charges back. Nobody is forcing you to claim Tax Credits. The government are providing you with 'free money' in the form of tax credits, so if you're not prepared to do a little leg-work (and undertake a little expense), perhaps don't phone them?

Just my tuppence worth...

AnxiousMum

nextyeartina wrote: »

the reason why it is being called a money making scheme is because you go through all the options before being cut off. when you call somewhere like tax credits, you should know within the first 30/40 seconds whether your call will be accepted or not.

i'm happy with my telephone provider & calling plan thank you anxiousmum.

i'm with virgin media & i did make a lot of attempts to get through to tax credits. don't forget the extra £43 also includes vat.

Or......
You could've saved the £43 in call charges, and corresponded with them the way they correspond with you - in writing. They print off the renewal packs, they mail them out to you, and all we have to do is complete the information that WE WANT THEM TO HAVE so WE CAN GET FREE MONEY, and stick a stamp on it and pop it in the mail box.
What's more, you do this the day or so after you receive the forms, and you should have your renewal schedule in the mail long before the cut off, and therefore know what your entitlement is.

nannytone_2

you could prove you'd called them with an itemised bill, but how do you prove they cut you off?

victoriaplus4

my calls came in at a cost of £8 to tax credit helpline,what annoys me is that you have to go through all the recorded options to then be told there to busy then cut off i would rather just have the engaged tone and try again without being charged for my call,as for the free money comment why come on a benefits board just to make a dig the reason i phoned was due to my tax credit just stopped as my son left school to go to 6th form nothing from them in writing and like many other people on here was not informed it would stop hence the quickest route is to phone,i wont be trying to reclaim the money but i don't think you should be charged for any call to anyone until you get through to an actual live person.

Murgatroyd21

To be fair, HMRC set up call centres because it was intended to be more efficient and cost effective than having staff deal with mail items. They wanted calls, not mail items. It isn't unreasonable in my view to expect an answer in a suitable timescale.

As for free money, well, I don't see it that way. Too, without tax credits, there are a great many people who simply couldn't survive on the salaries currently on offer without a top-up from tax credits. Working wouldn't be an option without an increase in wage.