Do Tax Credits record calls? :)

AimeesMum_2

Just wondering as a friend of mine is saying that they put her income in as £8,000 instead of £28,000 and have told her she has some massive overpayment. She says she definitely told them £28,000.

GobbledyGook

Did she not notice on her award letter or when her payments increased/were bigger than what she expected?

If she rings up they'll be able to tell if the call where she changed her income was recorded or not. I think the majority are.

AimeesMum_2

I don't know I'm not getting involved lol. It was just when I said to her that the calls are probably recorded she looked rather worried. It was when she was doing her renewal last year so she has probably been massively overpaid for a whole year!

GobbledyGook

She looked worried? No offence to your friend, but it sounds like she's tried the classic scam of under-stating her income to get more tax credits. Probably if she hadn't done it by such a drastic amount she'd have been ok, but £20k is a stupid amount to do it by.

I'm sure all the call centres (so the hotline) record all calls, but a few of the offices don't. I'm not 100% as I'm only going by what a friend of mine who works in tax credits said in a conversation about the difficulties the staff have with the complexity of the system and the rubbish training they get.

MrsManda

I think they say 'all calls may be recorded' but in practise they record all calls it's just that they have to say 'may' incase the recording kit fails.
If you make a complaint to say that you were advised wrong, they took the wrong details, the advisor was rude etc... then the complaints officer goes back and listen to the calls in order to deal with the complaint.

Sounds like your friend may be trying to cheat the system. I guess she could be 'lucky' and have had the recording equipment fail making it her word against theirs but as she should've checked her renewal notice was correct when she got it I don't see how she can win.

CIS

Irrespective of the recording she has the responsibility for checking the award notice uses the right details and to notify then accordingly. Its extremely unlikely that she'll not have to re-pay it.

jetplane

She can write and ask them for a copy of the recording. But come on tax credit notices may be confusing but the line which tells you how much income they based the award on is clear enough. She will just have to treat it as though she's had an interest free loan and pay it back.

Unless of course the fraud compliance team want to take a look :eek:

metalgal

how did she only notice now? firstly there would have been at least one letter. secondly tax credits would be substantially more on a 8k income than a 28k income did she not notice the extra money going in?

shayne_2

calls are defo recorded, more fool her is she's trying to scam them, it is a government office & they have to record the calls for there own protection as well as everyone else's

Aarons_mummy

When we were looking at getting the call recordings apperently they send out transcripts, you have to fax a number and they send it through, she would have to ask tax credits the number though as I don't have it here.

As others have said surely she noticed on the award notice the £20,000 difference, you should ALWAYS check the award notices for discrepencies, if she looked worried chances are she has told them the lower amount and is now trying to figure out how to bypass this.

no-oneknowsme

Every single time I ring the tc helpline the first question I ask is "Is this call being recorded?" To which the answer I always get is "yes , all calls are recorded".

I then ask the help line operator to tell me their name , I then continue to ask the question/query which led to me calling in the first place.

Then , when I finish the call I have a note pad which I keep in my file along with ALL of my award notices for the past God knows how many years lol and in that note pad I make a note of :

1. The time and date of the call.
2. The telehone number I called from.
3. The name of the operator.
4. The information I gave to the operator.
5. The information the operator gave me in return.

Now to some this may sound a bit OTT but I have experience of a close relative having to pay back a substantial overpayment and there is no way I would want to fall foul of the same thing.

Given that I have had to call the helpline many many times over the past year or two this system of keeping notes juts gives me a bit more confidence that nothing can go wrong.

Op , just confirming what some of the other posters are saying and that is that HMRC record every single call.

So by the looks of it your Friend has either given deliberatly the wrong income figure in the hope that she will "get away with it" or The call centre staff have mis-heard her during the call when she was giving her income figure in which case she should have picked the error up when she received her award notice.