Tax Credit Compliance Operations

ootie

Hi all.

Hoping please that someone can give me a little advice here.

My aunt has been in receipt of dla and also working tax credits, with a disability element.

She has received a letter from hmrc asking to send:

evidence of disability benefit currently received (not a problem).

evidence of disability benefit received BEFORE this award. This is where the problems start.

I rang hmrc to say that she had only this award letter and, as evidence and not photo copies had to be with them before 19th November, could they please bear with us a little longer to get this evidence from DLA.

This was fine, the dates they want to know about are Feb 2003 - Aug 2003 inclusive, the time she first claimed tax credits apparently. No other dates are wanted at this time.

DLA were great, and she's had a telephone call from them today. They've pulled her archive file, but have nothing going back that far. Something to do with data protection and things getting destroyed after a certain length of time?

I telephoned HMRC again after this, and they've not been overly nice about it. DLA lady gave her direct line for us to pass on so she could tell them if they wanted to ring, but they have no interest in doing that.

Has anyone please got any advice as to how we can proceed here?

Thank you so much in advance!:)

Starrystarrynight

Was the DLA paid in to her bank account? Maybe HMRC would accept bank statements covering the period in question.

ootie

Thank you for that, that was a thought I had too. Unfortunately the bank only keep statements for six years, so they told us on the phone this afternoon.

MCGONIS

Hello. They Disability Living Allowance office will be able to provide you with a letter stating when the award started and the rate at which the benefit was paid. Their records do go back that far. They go back as far as the application was made and any payments following on from that.

Just call back and ask the DLA helpline for a letter confirming the start date of the award. This will be the accepted by HMRC in the absence of the original award letter.

Hope that helps.