Tax Free Childcare Compensation - Where Now?

purplebiro

Hi, after some advice about what to do next.

I sent a compensation form (as found on this site) to the tax free childcare service in November last year, asking for £300 - covering a lost (by them) payment, missed entitlements and time for calls etc.

I have never received a written acknowledgement of the form's receipt. In January I was mysteriously refunded £30 with no written or verbal explanation. I phoned and was advised it was "a refund for September" - very vague and not related to anything I was actually asking for. The person on the phone confirmed they had received my complaint/request for compensation. I asked for a formal written acknowledgement and next steps and I was told that it was being dealt with and I would be called at some indeterminate time in the future. I advised that if I did not receive any formal response within 14 days I would contact my MP.

Obviously no call back or acknowledgement ever materialised and I contacted my MP on 17th Jan and he immediately attempted to contacted them on my behalf, was promised a call back, never got one, tried again on 5th February and yet again received no response.

I've just called again to ask about what my next steps are for elevating my complaint and was told that the complaints department are too busy to take any more calls. I was offered a call back :rotfl:

So what can I do now? I guess I could send a blanket email to moneybox, you and yours etc but it's not exactly a newsworthy story (I'm sure I'm not the only one) and the adjudication service indicates that they will only deal with complaints where HMRC have given their "final response" - I haven't even had a first response!!

Do I just give up on my £300?

Gettin256

Hi
Completely know what you're going through! my advice is firstly to ask to raise a complaint. I would absolutely focus on the missing payment rather than broader compensation at this stage. They should take a note of it there and then and refer it to the complaints team. There is a buffer team between general customer service and complaints called escalation so you could always asked to be put through to them as well.
You can also try the below email although I'm not sure you will get a response:[EMAIL="Childcareservices.customerrelationsteam@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk"]Childcareservices.customerrelationsteam@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

When none of this worked for me, I sent an email to the HMRC chief executive and asked my local MP to escalate. Things got resolved quick quickly after this.
hope this helps!