Told 44 Week Wait Appeal Disabled Element WTC

dollydiva

Son applied for the Disabled Element of WTC, which he has had before and we claimed under Condition G, that he was 'at some earlier time' in receipt of a qualifying benefit (which was Incapacity), is now earning less and has a condition that will last a lifetime. In fact the same Condition that enabled him to receive the Disabled Element in his prior claim.

We claimed back in July, but got a notification that the Claim was going to be rejected as he wasn't currently in receipt of a qualifying benefit, even though we said we wanted to Claim under Condition G and that it linked to a prior Claim.

So we asked for a Mandatory Reconsideration and was told this would take 3 months. But no action was taken on the Case at all, so we were told it would be escalated and it would take a further 6 weeks. When again no action was taken on the Case (the Agent admitted it hadnt ever been looked at) it was sent straight to Appeal.

We were then told that HMRC had 44 weeks to make a decision and, when We asked, was told that current timescale for a decision WAS the 44 weeks. This will mean a wait of 11 months for a decision and in total a wait of 15 months from the initial Claim.:mad:

My son can't afford that wait. It appears his only option is to go onto the sick for 20-odd weeks to satisfy the Fast Track Condition. Utter craziness!

Alice_Holt

May be worth contacting your MP. They have a high level contact into the HMRC, which often speeds things up / prompts a more constructive approach.
If you MP proves to be a poor constituency MP, then also try the MP who chairs the select committee overseeing HMRC, and the government & shadow ministers.

You may wish to raise the additional cost to the public purse of a tribunal, if the decision should be clear cut. Quote the relevant legislation, etc.

nicetea

I am posting a mandatory reconsideration form tomorrow and can't believe it could take up to 44 weeks for it to be looked at!Surely we will be in Universal Credit Land then!!

I will let you know how I get on and whether I find out ways to reduce the waiting time

I still have not had the letter that stopped my Disability Tax Credits ( not the first time either)
Hope HMRC internal post system doesn't take 44 weeks as well.My first "non-payment" was 2 days before Xmas Day (nice!!)

I thought Condition G was meant for your original qualifying benefit to be taken for annual renewals
so people do not return to there original often more costly benefit as you have said your Son may have to.

I joined this forum yesterday and asked about Condition G and as yet have had no replies so it was reassuring to see you mention it but sorry to hear about your problems

I question why there is such a long wait and whether they are inundated with appeals or do not employ enough staff to deal with them and create such a long wait in the hope of people just giving up.Given up to half a million people on lower rate DLA would not qualify for PIP and that when DLA ceases you immediately lose tax credits with disability element as well I sure there were lots of people in this situation also asking for mandatory reconsiderations based on Condition G

I have found HMRC staff to be quite pleasant but they seem to have their hands tied or do not know the information you require.

Good luck with your MP

dollydiva

Youre correct in thinking that the idea of Condition G is that if a qualifying benefit was paid at any earlier time, it still counts towards any subsequent claim. Otherwise - again correctly - the claimant would have to go back on Benefits, before they could qualify again.

Its even in their own leaflet https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/534178/TC956_04_16_1.0.pdf
Specifically page 7 "The period ‘some earlier time’ can allow continuing entitlement to the disability element long after the qualifying sickness or disability-related benefit stopped being paid."

Because of course, it would be just stupid to have to keep going back to Benefits; however, this is what my son is now being forced into as he cannot, quite literally, afford his job.

dollydiva

Having now looked i to the Complaints process, I feel HMRC have been very clever in escalating my sons claim to an Appeal as it buys them extra time; Ive no doubt they are probably escalating every Mandatory claim to an Appeal - this would explain the quoted 44 week wait for a decision.

The reason I say this is that under the Complaint guidance, we could not have applied for an Appeal ourselves until a decision had been made on our Case. As the Case has not even been looked at yet in 5 months, HMRC miss their own target of 32 days for a Mandatory Reconsideration by a long way.

However, by putting my sons Case in the Appeal process (which we did not ask for and were not told about until our last convo) they now have 44 weeks in which to make a decision. Neat.

Icequeen99

dollydiva wrote: »

Having now looked i to the Complaints process, I feel HMRC have been very clever in escalating my sons claim to an Appeal as it buys them extra time; Ive no doubt they are probably escalating every Mandatory claim to an Appeal - this would explain the quoted 44 week wait for a decision.

The reason I say this is that under the Complaint guidance, we could not have applied for an Appeal ourselves until a decision had been made on our Case. As the Case has not even been looked at yet in 5 months, HMRC miss their own target of 32 days for a Mandatory Reconsideration by a long way.

However, by putting my sons Case in the Appeal process (which we did not ask for and were not told about until our last convo) they now have 44 weeks in which to make a decision. Neat.

I think you need to get some advice. Cases aren't 'sent to appeal' - you have to ask for an appeal. So what you are saying doesn't make sense, someone in HMRC is not informing you correctly.

There are two stages to the appeal process - mandatory reconsideration and then appeal tribunal.

HMRC must make a mandatory reconsideration decision and when they do you will receive two copies of the notice.

If you still disagree with their decision, the claimant must submit an appeal to the Tribunal Service.

An appeal (after MR) has nothing to do with HMRC.

You need to find out exactly what stage your son's MR is at. They need to make a MR decision and then your son will need to decide whether to appeal after that.

It cannot be sent by HMRC to appeal - there is no such thing. HMRC only deal with MR's, the latter part of the process comes under the Tribunal Service.

MP will be the quickest way to get an answer as it seems they are not telling you things correctly.

IQ

NeilCr

IceQueen beat me to it!

Here's some information on Mandatory Reconsiderations

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/benefits-introduction/problems-with-benefits-and-tax-credits/challenging-a-benefit-decision/challenging-a-dwp-benefit-decision-on-or-after-28-october-2013/challenging-a-benefit-or-tax-credit-decision-asking-for-a-reconsideration/

At the bottom is a link to appealing a decision if the MR has turned it down

There does seem something wrong here and I agree with others about contacting your MP

dollydiva

Thanks for the link, which we have looked at previously, which is why we are too confused by being told (twice) that it has been sent for Appeal, even though we have no decision letter. We have copies of the online Chats clearly telling us of the Appeal.

Following the guidelines though, we cant go futher as a decision has not been made! We can't complain about something which has not happened.

We''ll try calling, but have always had online Chats as we felt this gave us a record of exactly what was being said.

Icequeen99

I would try phoning or use the online chat again and just explain you know the process and that appeals are done by the claimant direct to the Tribunal Service on form SSCS5 and therefore all you want to know is what has happened with the MR and has a decision been issued and if not why not and can they chase with the MR team.


Then you can send a letter of complaint about the delay on the MR and the bad advice from the chat service.

But as we have said above - if you want it sorted quick escalate via your MP or go to an advice agency who have access to the intermediaries helpline. If your son has a disability that means he needs extra support - ask the main tax credits helpline to refer the case to the needs enhanced support team who should be able to find out what is going on and keep hold of the case.

IQ

IQ

Alice_Holt

This is the form you will need to appeal to the Tribunal Service, once you have received the Mandatory Reconsideration notice from HMRC
https://formfinder.hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/sscs005-eng.pdf

Here is some more info on the process:
http://revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-to-deal-with-hmrc/appeals/starting-an-appeal/

Darksparkle

Do they maybe mean it's been sent to some sort of appeals team? They have an appeals and reviews team so wonder if that's who has the MR?