P800 tax underpayment / JSA??

misssmcc

First off i apologise for the length this post will be

I received a letter today from HMR&C, stating that i had underpaid £477 worth of tax for the tax year 2011-2012, it had details of my income on the letter.
However the details are wrong, my PAYE income is correct, however it also states that i received almost £2500 worth of JSA that year. Thing is, i started working in april 2011, i have only ever claimed JSA for a period of around 4 months (december 2010 until i started my current job on 18th april 2011).

I called HMR&C for advice, they told me they based the P800 on information from the jobcentre. in other words, the jobcentre have told them i was claiming JSA until december 2011, rather than that my claim ended when i began work in april 2011.

They advised me to call the jobcentre as they would have sent me a P45 when my claim ended, i cant for the life of me remember if i received this or not, i threw away all my old benefit letters as i didnt think i would need them. (Whether i received a P45 or not i certainly did not receive the JSA the say i was claiming)

Was stuck on hold for ages to jobcentre, then i failed the security question about my mobile number i had at the time of my last claim (i cant remember my number at the time), so they will call me back tomorrow apparently.

I am just wondering if anyone has any idea how this could have happened? I am now stuck with a big tax underpayment for income i never received, nor wanted nor was entitled to :mad: My brain is going into overdrive with worry that some fraudster is claiming in my name as unlikely as i am sure that is, as i certainly didnt claim it myself. For information, dont know if it makes any difference but when i ended my claim in april 2011 i did it in person at my local jobcentre plus office, with the lone parent benefits advisor that had helped me search for work, so i know it cant be a case that i didnt fill in some form etc, and anyway surely if it was a mistake on my part i would still be receiving this JSA?

thank you for reading i know it was long

zebramolli

If I understand this correctly you've had exactly the same problem as me, I posted earlier today about it here. I've managed to find a copy of the P45 from the Job Centre but there aren't any figures on it so HMRC say it won't be any use to them as it just shows a sign off date but I could have still received money after that.

My figures and dates are very similar to yours, I'm off to the Job Centre on Friday to give them the information request form that was linked to in my thread I'll then send this off to HMRC along with copies of my bank statements from this time and a letter stating the Job Centre refused to provide the information they were requesting.

The advisor I spoke to at HMRC told me they needed a JA509529 form from the Job Centre but the chap I spoke to there had never heard of it. Nearly an hour on the phone between the two departments today and no further ahead!

misssmcc

Thank you I notice you are in north east Scotland too, I wonder if that's a connection? Our dates are very similar too, I signed off JSA in April 2011. Very strange

JenniWR

One more here, and nearer London than Scotland!

I claimed JSA, but due to my partner's savings, never received any. I've now been told that since I received £1,552 and then a further £67 in JSA, I've under paid by £325!

Well, I guess HMRC can have their £325 - if I can have my £1,619 from DWP!

Horseunderwater

A lesson to anyone claiming any benefit from DWP - keep all P45's or P60's for 6 years! Then you would not get in this pickle. Same for above if received from an employer too! There is no other way to really prove your income. Bank statements only show net pay from employment, although they would show gross for benefit purposes, but that is not definite proof as you could still have been paid by giro cheques back then.

misssmcc

I gave my P45 from the job centre to my employer when I started my job. That's why I didn't have it. Jan, my situation has been cleared up as I went to my local job centre office and they happened to have an HMRC advisor there who was able to change the amount of JSA I received that tax year to the correct amount (not £2497 as was on the P800 I actually only received £113 that year as I only signed on for 12 days). It's sometimes worth going into the office rather than phoning as these situations can be difficult to explain over the phone. Hope you get it sorted.

LAURALOO

Thank goodness I'm not the only one! This has really been giving me sleepless nights I got my p800 form 5 weeks ago. Correct amount of tax, correct income... JSA: nearly £5,000!

They are therefore asking me for nearly £500 in underpayment. Now, I claimed JSA for 6 weeks in my entire life, from mid July-end Aug 2011. I claimed just under £800.00 in total, wrote and rang DWP when I began work etc.

The £5,000 they say I've received in JSA is also shown as three seperate amounts, of £3,777, £890 and £320, which I find really odd as it looks to me as though they think I've claimed on three seperate occasions. It's really frustrating that the p800 form provides no details of the time this alleged JSA was claimed.

Anyway, after wasting all my credit frantically ringing them and the job centre and spending a fortune on my mobile, I found a letter from DWP saying that I had received £800 in JSA and this may be taxable. I sent it off with a very peed off letter, telling them what a !!!! up they've made, how much I worked out they in fact owe me, and how to contact me. I've also got all my bank statement for that period, and have received £800, so thay can have a copy of those too if they need more proof.

Nearly four weeks later, and I've heard nothing. Sounds like they've made massive errors re JSA on loads of P800s this year. I'm in Leicester. Lets hope they sort us all out ASAP, but no doubt they'll make it difficult to get what we're owed. :mad:

(Incidentally, was just wondering, does the tax year run from early April-end March or early May-end April?)

Horseunderwater

Tax years end 5th April and begin 6th April each and every year. I hope you kept a copy of that JSA letter - they are famous for losing stuff.

chrisbur

misssmcc wrote: »

I gave my P45 from the job centre to my employer when I started my job. That's why I didn't have it.

Of no use to you now but for future referance and for anyone else reading this, the P45 you are given has a top copy marked Part 1A, this part should be removed and kept for your records before the rest of the P45 (Parts 2 and 3) are given to a new employer or Jobcentre. New employers are supposed to return any Part 1As they get but some do not.

LAURALOO

Horseunderwater wrote: »

Tax years end 5th April and begin 6th April each and every year. I hope you kept a copy of that JSA letter - they are famous for losing stuff.

Thanks for that, couldn't remember the exact dates.

I did keep a photocopy of the letter about JSA, sent off the original, and I also copied my handwritten letter to them so I can just send it all off again if i don't hear anything back by the end of next week.

So frustrating! :mad:

alsoinhd

This has been caused because when hmrc dont receive details from dwp about the amount of jsa received hmrc estimate the amounts. The dates are often incorrect resulting in hmrc estimating that jsa was earnt for longer thus you end up with the underpayment.