Appeal Time Limits - (Working) Tax Credits

VT_Man

I would be obliged if anyone can provide me with an answer to a question I have, regarding the time limits for making an appeal against a (Working) Tax Credits Notification. I should state at the outset that this is not a pressing issue, as I do not currently have an appeal pending and the appeal that we made was within the time limit anyway.

The question. When we received the Notification from the Tax Credits Office [TCO] it stated ‘you have 30 days from the date of this notice to appeal’. It took seven days for us to receive the notice, therefore giving us twenty-three days to draft our appeal and ensure that it was received by the TCO. It seemed wrong to me (and went against other legislation that I was aware of) that time for my appeal was effluxing before I was even aware that I needed to appeal. I queried where, in the Tax Credits Act 2002, or elsewhere, the statutory justification was for time for an appeal running from the date of the Notification, rather than from the date of service of the Notification. The best I got was from the TCO’s submission to The Adjudicator. The TCO stated as follows: ‘‘In their letter to the Adjudicator Mr and Mrs xxxxxxx have asked for a legal justification of why the 30 day window for appealing a decision begins not from the date of service of the award notice. The legal justification is provided by Section 39 of the Tax Credit Act 2002 which specifically provides

“The initial time limit for making an appeal is the period of 30 days after the date on which the notice of decision was given.”

This means the notice of appeal must have been received by an office of HMRC no later than 31 days from and including the date on which the notice of the decision was given (this is the issued date on the notice of the decision). Any notice received outside that period is considered as a late appeal. "

We queried, with The Adjudicator, the lack of a statutory definition from the TCO of the word ‘given’. But all we got from her was a comment about consistency between the TCO’s reference to Section 39 of the Tax Credits Act 2002 and their (i.e. TCO’s) own guidance. The guidance states “The appeal has to be made in writing, within 30 days of the notice of the decision being sent and the advisor will inform the customer of this.”. Not exactly convincing – but better than The Prime Minister, who failed to even acknowledge receipt of our correspondence, let alone provide a substantive reply, when we wrote and asked him about this.

So, does anyone know where, either in the Tax Credits Act, 2002, or elsewhere, there is justification for defining the word ‘given’, in Section 39 of the Act, as meaning (in the TCO’s words) ‘the issued date on the notice of decision’? Or, are Tax Credit claimants being given the impression that they have less time to appeal, than they truly have?

Thanks in advance.

VT Man.

benefitbaby

Whilst I cannot answer your specific question re; section 39 of the TC Act it is standard across all benefits that the time limit for appeal runs from the date of the decision maker's decision (ie. the date on the letter), not the date of service.

This has been argued before at Upper Tribunal and has not been successful.

As you note the guidance to the Act - which sets out the purpose of the law - clearly states 'sent' and this too has been argued using section 7 of the Interpretation Act (if memory serves), again unsuccessfully.

VT_Man

Thanks for the reply benefitbaby.

Don't know why anybody that we've been writing to since March 2011, couldn't have just said that it was a 'standard' thing for benefits, even if they couldn't have pointed us to a specific provision for Tax Credits.

I would say that this is, at best, an example of unfairness built into legislation - but not the only one that I have come across.

All the time limits that I have come across before, have always run from the date of service - also, Section 7 Interpretation Act 1978, as you say. Seems much fairer.

Past experience causes me to sometimes have less than full confidence in 'internal guidance'. I have always found it safer to read the source documents for myself.

Cheers,

VT Man.