How can I get HMRC to send me my refund?

Joe404

My apologies if a similar question has already been asked.

I've had this ongoing issue with HMRC for some time; since 2008 I've been in various employments and each time I've started a new job I've been put on an emergency tax code. Each time I've been on the phone to HMRC to try to get a refund but I'm always given an excuse.

I managed to find all of my payslips and worked out that since 2008 I've overpaid tax by about £2,100. In October last year I finally got somewhere after speaking to an unusually helpful advisor at their Liverpool office. It turns out they were just missing a few bits of information, if I sent it to them I would get a tax calculation going back to 2008 and a refund.

I did as she said and after a few more months of phone calls I was finally told on 4th January this year that they had done my tax calculation for years ending April '09 and April '10 (No mention of '08, '11 and what I have overpaid this year to date though), and they had posted a cheque for £600 which will take 14 days to arrive (Really?).

To date I am yet to receive anything from them, I called them again today and (after being on hold for over an hour) that the cheque was still pending and it hasn't been sent, and it still in their office but she doesn't know why. She is going to email someone to review it and they will call me in five working days to give me an update.

Has anyone else had similar issues? It's driving me insane, what else can I do to get them to pull their finger out? Who can I complain to? How difficult can it be for them to sort out something so basic?

xylophone

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/c12.htm