Scammed by Entitlements Agency

John_Pierpoint

I would define a scam as "taking advantage of the ignorant in society to obtain high fees for little work". Perhaps my preferred wording for that definition would be rip off ?

If it is obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception it is better described as fraud.

If it is taking a fee for no work it is simply theft.

What is your definition of scam ?

noh

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/scam

noun informal

• a dishonest scheme; a fraud:

chalmizzle

just to add, I've applied with this company too, awaiting correspondance for entitlements.

Reading through the posts, I've realised that,

www. taxrebate .co.uk
www. inland-revenue .org.uk &
www. taxcredits .org.uk

all have the same theme, company address etc

SOMETHING VERY FISHY ABOUT THEM!

John_Pierpoint

Here are some folks discussing the etymology of the expression scam.
Seems it is most likely an American import.

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1048

At least using the agency route enabled the government to get a £9 chunk of the tax refund, as in this "hypothetical" example posted by the OP:

If your rebate was say £300, The Entitlements Agency would keep £51 plus £8.93 in VAT, meaning you have lost a chunk of almost £60 from your rebate.

Mind you in my case of reclaiming about £500 of overpaid tax, it took three letters followed by a 24 hour attempt to get through to a so called help line on the shores of the Lake District [It was in reality a "triage" centre intended to sort the realistic claims from the people who did not understand the system followed by a 36 hour wait for someone to phone me back "tomorrow" followed by a reply to one of my three letters, about 6 weeks later telling me the situation appeared to have been sorted out. I don't think any claims agency would have made much of a profit from their £51-£85 fee in those circumstances.

Perhaps the explanation was that HMRC had recently got rid of their experienced staff and replaced them by a command and control computer system back in 2009/10 ?

vivroy

I too have been caught in this trap. I sent my details to them originally and had all my documents back saying they could not help me and to send the information to the tax office which I did. When the reply came back telling me I was entitled to a refund and that I would receive this through the entitlement agency (why I wonder could the Tax Office not send me my refund after the Agency stated they could not deal with this) I have not cashed the cheque yet as I am still waiting for more refunds for previous years I have tried phoning but as previously stated they do not answer the phones I have written a letter to them but with no reply. Do you think if I tell them I am going to the small claims court I will get some sort of satisfaction.

John_Pierpoint

If you decide to change or get rid of your tax agent, it is your responsibility to write and tell HMRC, as you would inform HMRC if your postal address changed.

Gail_P

Should HMRC be advertising a private enterprise on their website. I clicked on a link onthe HMRC site entitled claim a tax rebate after being told by someone at HMRC that I had to make my claim online. This was the only link available. Who are their regulators.

nomunnofun

Gail_P wrote: »

Should HMRC be advertising a private enterprise on their website. I clicked on a link onthe HMRC site entitled claim a tax rebate after being told by someone at HMRC that I had to make my claim online. This was the only link available. Who are their regulators.

Strange! Can you post the URL of the HMRC site or a link?

00ec25

Gail_P wrote: »

Should HMRC be advertising a private enterprise on their website. I clicked on a link on the HMRC site entitled claim a tax rebate after being told by someone at HMRC that I had to make my claim online. This was the only link available. Who are their regulators.

as a newbie you will not be able to post the link on this forum but please would you type out the url of the page you allege has this private advert on it so we can check what you say. I'll bet you're not on a genuine HMRC site !

just put a space somewhere in the url, eg:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/refund-reclaim.htm
becomes
hmrc .gov .uk/incometax/refund

esmerellda

5/11/2013

The Entitlements Agency Ltd is being investigated by the Claims Management Regulator under regulation 35 of The Compensation (Claims Management Services) Regulations 2006.

https://www.claimsregulation.gov.uk/details.aspx/15808