Specialist Compliance Team letter

jellybaby49

Hi all,

Just wondered if anyone can help me. I am a mum of 2, my youngest's dad has just moved in with me (literally a few days ago) so I need to ring tax credits and change my claim. However I received this mornign a letter from the Specialist Compliance Team basically stating "you are claiming as a single person but we know a lot of people don't tell us about their partner".

I am a bit concerned that HMRC will want to check my bank statements etc for the last year, there has been some money transferred from my account to his and visa vera, usually for example if I was off shopping to pick up things for him. All my bills are in my name, he has had a mortgage for all the time we have been together and all the bills etc from his old house were in his name. However he has just sold his house, hence he has moved in with me. Obviously I have proof of the date of sale.

Just wondering after a standard letter like this being sent out, when I tell them he has now moved in are they likely to question me further? From reading other posts I see there is no point in calling the helpline now that Compliance are looking at it?

Any advice would be appreciated

mumoffour77

Your gonna need to ring them now before 8pm and tell them about your change in circumstance!

jellybaby49

There's a number on the letter and the line closes at 5pm apparantly. I tried calling at 4.40pm and there was no reply.

Just to make it clear this is in regards to Tax Credits, I work so I don't claim anything else.

mumoffour77

But because your partner does...its classed as household income!! Also the small fact that he has just sold a house kinda comes into it....its classed as savings!

jellybaby49

Yes sorry I probably didnt make myself clear, I claim WFTC and CTC, I work part time.

He has got a little bit back on his house which I will declare, that hadn't even occurred to me until you said that.

kathryn77_2

Hi there

I received exactly the same letter on Friday. I tried calling, but couldnt get through and it took several attempts today.
I spoke to a guy who told me these are generic letters being sent out to 200,000 single person claimants this past week.

They are to check through your claim and ensure you are claiming correctly. So it is possible that it was just purely coinicidental that it was the same time as your partner was moving in.

All they asked me was a few simple questions, like am i still single, has anyone lived with me in the last year, do I pay all the bills, do I have post going to my house for anyone else and income & childcare all the same. the final question was do I envisage anything chaing in the next year.

It was simple straight forward and I presume it is more to reign a bit of revenue back than anything else.

I had a childcare ammendment which will mean I will be a few quid a week shorter, but that was it.

Dont worry yourself as loads of people will be going thorugh the same this next week or so.

If you want to check this info, I googled myself over the weekend as I thought something had flagged on my account to receive the letter. But the tax journal entry states that this was HMRC's intention to send these letters back in October.

Hope you manage to sort everything.

sparkles82_2

hi can anyone help. I had this you are claiming tax credits as a single person is this right? letter. I rung the helpline and she said it could be that i have been selected for a random check. I have nothing to hide but would have a problem with having them trawl through my bank statements as i have been paying my car of monthly. Has anyone else had these letters what do they want?

AsknAnswer2

kathryn77 wrote: »

If you want to check this info, I googled myself over the weekend as I thought something had flagged on my account to receive the letter. But the tax journal entry states that this was HMRC's intention to send these letters back in October.

Hope you manage to sort everything.

I can't find that entry in the tax journal. I know you can't do a link because you haven't enough posts. Could you either type out the web address direct to the article with spaces or pm it to me? I'd be interested to read it.

Thank you.

AsknAnswer2

sparkles82 wrote: »

hi can anyone help. I had this you are claiming tax credits as a single person is this right? letter. I rung the helpline and she said it could be that i have been selected for a random check. I have nothing to hide but would have a problem with having them trawl through my bank statements as i have been paying my car of monthly. Has anyone else had these letters what do they want?

Why would that be a problem for your tax credit claim?

Ilovepurple

I received one of these letters last Friday. I called them today and was disgusted when I had to call for over an hour to finally get through. The letter states that they will call you back to save your bill but after being disconnected over 25 times and waiting for ages each time I called its cost me a lot already.
The lady stated that the reason I had received the letter was because my landlady's name had been flagged as an adult living at the address, but then she proceeded to ask really personal in-depth questions about my youngest sons dad. I can understand her wanting to know if he lived with me or if we were a couple (both answers were no) but why do they need to know what his contact arrangements to my son are and whether he comes in to visit him. She even asked if there was a chance that we would get back together! Personally I can understand how some people on here are dubious about all the questions as it was very intrusive. But once its done that's it.
I had nothing to hide, and there was nothing that needed amending on my claim, but I still feel a bit upset about all the questions about my ex, as it was a awful breakup and is still upsetting for me. I just hope that the fact that I RENT my house from someone who still has OCCASIONAL mail sent here doesn't mean I get one of these letters every year!!

Oh and noneknowsme, can you tell me which benefit department you work for?? Seems that your opinion is a bit harsh, and very generalised, implying that all single parents are fraudsters!!

sunnyone

Ilovepurple wrote: »

I received one of these letters last Friday. I called them today and was disgusted when I had to call for over an hour to finally get through. The letter states that they will call you back to save your bill but after being disconnected over 25 times and waiting for ages each time I called its cost me a lot already.
The lady stated that the reason I had received the letter was because my landlady's name had been flagged as an adult living at the address, but then she proceeded to ask really personal in-depth questions about my youngest sons dad. I can understand her wanting to know if he lived with me or if we were a couple (both answers were no) but why do they need to know what his contact arrangements to my son are and whether he comes in to visit him. She even asked if there was a chance that we would get back together! Personally I can understand how some people on here are dubious about all the questions as it was very intrusive. But once its done that's it.
I had nothing to hide, and there was nothing that needed amending on my claim, but I still feel a bit upset about all the questions about my ex, as it was a awful breakup and is still upsetting for me. I just hope that the fact that I RENT my house from someone who still has OCCASIONAL mail sent here doesn't mean I get one of these letters every year!!

Oh and noneknowsme, can you tell me which benefit department you work for?? Seems that your opinion is a bit harsh, and very generalised, implying that all single parents are fraudsters!!

Since living together and claiming as a single person is the biggest benefit fraud there is you cant complain that it is being clamped down on, your case was flagged for good reason, they thought you didnt live alone because your landlady was flagged as living with you (same sex couples live under the same rules as hetrosexual couples) and you also get mail for your ex which will be flagged under the experian checks that the DWP are using to route out fraudsters as him still registed to live at your address.

Not all single parents are fraudsters but some are, just as some some other sections of society are but isnt it amazing that the day that these letters were recieved we have several posters here saying that their boyfriends had JUST moved in or that every year at tax credit review time we get dozens of single parents doing the same?