Tax Credit Appeal - No Response

worriednoob

Hi everyone,

I'm in dire need of your advise for my situation. I'll try to keep it as short as possible, but please bear with me.

1. Last year whilst looking for a job, a benefits advisor pointed out to me that my daughter child tax credits had been miscalculated and that she has missed out for almost a year. According to the advisor, she was getting a lot less than she was entitled to due to her exceptional heart and health condition.

2. I contacted tax credits and explained the situation. I was told to wait for a written response.

3. I received a written response asking why I took so long to contact them about the error as I was now over the time of appealing and whether I had a good reason for this.

4. I explained in my reply in feb 2014, that I have a very long history of severe depression/mental health issues and part of the side-effects are that I am forgetful and prone to making errors. Also that since my daughter was getting paid child tax credits that I assumed it was the correct amount and that I wasn't aware there were different amounts for children. I lastly told them that it was only by chance that this error was bought to my attention by a benefits advisor.

5. Although they have confirmed that they've received my letter, I have still as yet not received any further response. Everytime I call them for an update, they keep telling me to wait.

I want to know if there is anyone else I can goto to complain about them, such as an adjudicator and what else can you recommend to speed up this process?

Thank you

worriednoob

Just to clarify this is problem is going back to 2012. Yes, my child was on DLA. Her DLA stopped for a short period and then restarted. I informed them of this restarting at the same time as I called to tell them that I had resigned from my job due to ill-health. They have a log of me informing them about the job resignation, but not of her dla restarting

As you can imagine, most of us don't record any conversations, so we have to put our trust in their staff that they will type the correct notes.

I only found out about this problem in oct 2013 by accident when I found another job and a better-off benefits advisor told me that I wasn't getting a disability element for the ctc for my daughter.

So as soon as I was informed by the benefits advisor, I called tax credits and after explaining the situation, I was told that it's my problem to watch out that these dla elements have been added to the CTC, but I said that I wasn't even aware of such a thing as an additional DLA element in CTC and with the benefits/tax credits system being so complex, honest mistakes can happen, just like their staff not taking notes.

They obviously disagreed that their staff missed out on taking notes, so I requested for a subject to access to all recordings and notes. I was told they have no recorded calls, but they can send out screenshots and any other notes as well as a written response letter, but I'd have to do the SAR in writing, to which I agreed.

After checking the SAR information, they confirmed that I had called in dec 2012 to inform them of my work, but not of the DLA restarting - THIS IS WHERE THEIR STAFF HAVE MADE A MISTAKE!


Here is a letter of appeal:-

Date: XX Oct 2013

APPEAL FOR CHILD TAX CREDIT DISABILITY BACK PAYMENT

Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to you with regards to your decision on XX October 2013 for back payment of “The Disability Element” of Child Tax Credits for my daughter XXXXXXXXXX (DOB:XX/XX/20XX). Your decision was that she is only entitled for 1 month back payment from XX/10/13 because according to the notes typed by your staff on your system, you were not notified that her DLA had re-started last year.
This I have to say is unfortunately incorrect, hence my reason for appealing.

Here is the timeline of events:
1. XX October 2012 – XX’s DLA stopped
2. XX October 2012 - I notified you that her DLA had stopped on the XX Oct 2012
3. XX November 2012 – XX was awarded DLA up to XX/10/2013, but this decision letter took approximately 10 working days to reach us.
4. XX December 2012 – I resigned from work due to ill-health
5. XX December 2012 – I notified you of 2 updates:-
a. On receipt of XX’s DLA award letter, I notified you that XX’s DLA had been awarded and restarted.
b. Also at the same time I informed you that I had stopped working at XX.

Unfortunately, I believe your staff member who took the call on XX of December 2012 did not add the DLA update information into the notes on the system. This as you can understand is beyond my control as I cannot see what notes are being typed and have to put my full trust in the person I speak to that they would write the notes correctly. I appreciate that it must have been a Human Error, but my daughter should not have to lose out on this mistake.

In order to resolve this issue and prove that I did mention the above information, I have decided to separately send a Subject Access Request (via tracked delivery) for any telephone conversations that took place between XX/10/12 and XX/10/13, although I really do hope that we don’t have to go down this route.

I would like to ask for reconsideration on the decision made on XX October 2013 and would be most grateful if you could look at this again. If you need further information, you can contact me on 07XXXXXXXXXX.

If you cannot change the decision then I wish to appeal this and I would be very grateful if you can send me the relevant forms and also all documents relating to my claim.

I look forward to your reply

Kind Regards

XXXXXXXXX

UPDATE: I called into their dept yesterday and spoke to a very nice and understanding lady. She apologised and said that my complaint should have been dealt with within 20 weeks and since it's now approaching about 36 weeks without response, she is going to escalate it to two team leaders in the quality assurance team and also allocate me a dedicated case handler. She also recommended that I still contact the adjudicator's office and make a complaint and if this issue is not sorted, then at least I've already got the ball rolling.

worriednoob

UPDATE: This morning I called the adjudicator's office to make a complaint. Unfortunately, the adjudicator said that I can't make a complaint without a final response letter and recommended that I ask HMRC for one.

I called them and received a ringback. The so-called dedicated case handler is absolutely useless. He said he can't do anything or provide me with any information and I simply have to wait it out again, possibly upto 20 weeks for a response.

This is a ludicrous situation and I'm hoping someone on here can advise if I can take any further steps to speed up this process?

worriednoob

Thanks blondebubbles. But surely my appeal was supposed to be looked at by 20 weeks? It's now 35 weeks and if they took another 20 weeks, that'll be 55 weeks! Surely that's not a fair timescale and surely there should be a way of escalating this for the ridiculous timescale?

Icequeen99

worriednoob wrote: »

Thanks blondebubbles. But surely my appeal was supposed to be looked at by 20 weeks? It's now 35 weeks and if they took another 20 weeks, that'll be 55 weeks! Surely that's not a fair timescale and surely there should be a way of escalating this for the ridiculous timescale?

You need to be really clear about what you have done.

Appeals are done under legislative process and ultimately go to an independent tribunal outside of HMRC. There are strict time limits for appeals.

Disputes/complaints are dealt with by HMRC internally and if you are not happy after the second complaint response then you can go to the Adjudicator.

The Adjudicator cannot get involved in appeals unless you also sent in a separate complaint.

If you submitted an appeal, you may be able to get the Tribunal to direct HMRC to take some action, but you will need an adviser to help you do that.

Did HMRC say they cannot provide you with a copy of the call?

IQ

worriednoob

Thanks for your replies blondebubbles and icequeens. Unfortunately they still are messing me about and after speaking to the Adjudicator, he suggested the same as you guys that I write my complaint to the tax credit office.

Could you help me write a strong worded letter of complaint to the Tax Credits Office please?

Here is a quick brief overview of the events:-

• Oct 2013 - Informed by benefit expert that my daughter's TC was missing disability element of payment
• Oct 2013 -Called TC and explained the situation and was told to wait for response.
• Oct 2013 - Got response saying only entitled to 1 month back payment as I had not informed that my daughter had restarted her dla
• Oct 2013 - Sent a letter, appealing against this decision and did a Subject Access request at the same time to prove I had informed them
• Nov 2013 - Got an Appeal response, asking me to explain why I believe they had got it wrong.
• Nov 2013 - Sent an Appeal reply explaining the situation.
• Since that above events to Present - I have been contacting HMRC Tax credit on so many occasions, that I've lost count. All I keep getting is that I just have to keep waiting. It's only since beginning Aug 2014 that they have so-called escalated, but now they keep giving me excuses of a response letter within 10 working days and when that day has come and gone, they say "a further 10 working days!"

Thanks again

dundeediva

Sorry to butt in,

Did you get the SAR request?

worriednoob

Sorry I forgot to add that in...Yes I did receive it.

They clearly stated that they have no recorded calls to show...only screen printouts of the notes typed by their staff.

worriednoob

UPDATE:-

Hi guys,

Since my appeal was out of the time-limit, HMRC were not willing to deal with it. The First-Tier District Judge though has ruled in my favour on medical grounds and therefore extended the time-limit. I believe that the next phase is tribunal, but could someone please clarify what exactly happens next?

Icequeen99

worriednoob wrote: »

UPDATE:-

Hi guys,

Since my appeal was out of the time-limit, HMRC were not willing to deal with it. The First-Tier District Judge though has ruled in my favour on medical grounds and therefore extended the time-limit. I believe that the next phase is tribunal, but could someone please clarify what exactly happens next?

HMRC should now prepare the case for submission to the Tribunal. You will receive a copy of their papers and you will be given an opportunity to respond.

Your response should be short and factual and if possible refer to the legislation. FTT Judges like that. You need to try and keep the emotion and delays etc out of it as all the Tribunal can do is look at the law. You will receive notification from the Tribunal asking if you want a hearing where you attend or for it to be heard on the papers without attending. People do much better if they attend. It is a very informal process, more like an interview panel at a job that a proper court.

Now HMRC have been told to admit the appeal, it is possible they will look at it again and change their decision.

You can also submit a complaint about the actual delays and treatment in this case.

IQ

worriednoob

Thank you for the explanation icequeen99.

I haven't received any papers from HMRC as yet, so I will give them a call to request these. I have already made a complaint regarding the delays, although this was verbally to their staff.

Could I now get an adjudicator involved regarding the way this case was delayed and the way I was treated or will I still need a letter from HMRC?