specified adult childcare credits - delays in processing (rant!)

ajc02

My wife has been claiming specified adult childcare credits for a few years now since she took early retirement to look after our 3 grandkids (started as just the 1!) and has been claiming specified adult childcare credits for that time with no processing issues. Claims are always put in at the beginning of November and written confirmation that credit has been applied by the end of December / early January. This latest application again was in for early November, but as yet no written confirmation of credit applied or showing on Nat.Ins. contributions website. She has phoned twice, having waited in a queue for nearly an hour each time, to be told they have the form and it will be processed ASAP. Her initial call in January said it was now taking 15 weeks to process,  we are now 23 weeks into that queue for processing.
How can processing these applications take so long now, considering it used to only take 8-10 weeks prior to this year?
As an additional note, I have to deal with my own mother's tax affairs as her Legal Guardian as she now lives in a care home with Dementia, I get her tax bill demanding payment 2 weeks after returning her tax forms!

p00hsticks

ajc02 said:

How can processing these applications take so long now, considering it used to only take 8-10 weeks prior to this year?

The HMRC NI team is currently being inundated with queries and requests to make backdated voluntary NI contributions as a result of the recent publicity surrounding the (now extended) deadline for being able to make contributions back to 2006 in order to increase your state pension.

 My understanding is that they currently have a very large backlog of post to read and manual NI contribution updates to do and I suspect this will be why you are having to wait so long when phoning and why it's taking longer than usual to process the appliciation. 

Unless your wife is due to reach state pension age imminently and so needs that year credited quickly, and as they have already informed her that they have received the form, in your shoes I'd just leave it for a few months - the 2006 deadline had now been extended until the end of July due to the overwhelming demand, and I suspect it will only be after then that the staff will be able to get back to fully focussing on their more usual workload. 

sheramber

ajc02 said:

My wife has been claiming specified adult childcare credits for a few years now since she took early retirement to look after our 3 grandkids (started as just the 1!) and has been claiming specified adult childcare credits for that time with no processing issues. Claims are always put in at the beginning of November and written confirmation that credit has been applied by the end of December / early January. This latest application again was in for early November, but as yet no written confirmation of credit applied or showing on Nat.Ins. contributions website. She has phoned twice, having waited in a queue for nearly an hour each time, to be told they have the form and it will be processed ASAP. Her initial call in January said it was now taking 15 weeks to process,  we are now 23 weeks into that queue for processing.
How can processing these applications take so long now, considering it used to only take 8-10 weeks prior to this year?
As an additional note, I have to deal with my own mother's tax affairs as her Legal Guardian as she now lives in a care home with Dementia, I get her tax bill demanding payment 2 weeks after returning her tax forms!

Inland Revenue and  National Insurance are two separate departments  of HMRC.

Circusdancer

Phone call with HMRC this morning. The response time backlog is now c29 weeks and they are currently dealing with applications from Oct 2022. My application was received by them in mid-Feb so I will be lucky if I receive a response by Sept. I was assured that any shortfall amounts I have to pay will not increase post-July 23. They are prioritising the thousands of phone calls they are receiving hence the backlog is not being cleared.

relishy57

Would you be able to post the number you rang please? I’m due to get my state pension in Aug 23. I have 1 application in the pipeline and had asked for guidance re 21/22 which cannot be applied for until this October. I understand that it will be backdated to date of starting state pension drawdown when finally processed. Is this correct? 

Gillwh

Isnt it interesting that if we owed them money it would be unlikely there were no staff to process that side of things……

juliedee4663

I applied in November last year and as of today have received no communication at all from them. I rang them about 2 months ago, on hold for nearly 3 hours, and was told that they had received my form and it would be processed in May at the earliest which is ridiculous.  On the other hand though, I had a similar experience when I worked for the NHS and was innundated with applications from people wanting to retrospectively claim care home fees back through NHS Continuing healthcare with no extra staff to deal with the thousands of applications that suddenly landed on our desks.

Swatcay

Application forms sent in Feb 2023 and acknowledged. I was wondering why I hadn't heard anything since. I eventually found out from Gov website (July 20 2023) that they are currently processing applications from September 2022!!! That's nearly a year!!  

joacoo

Have just come across your forum & it makes v interesting reading. Any advice as to whether it’s worth me applying for Childcare credits as I am due to retire in Aug 24 & have been told I can purchase up to 3 yrs of Nat.Ins. contributions (yes,I actually got through to the future pensions service!). By the time they get to looking into my application, I would have had to have made the choice as to how many I need to buy. I won’t know how many months I’m entitled to receive for looking after my GSon.

molerat

joacoo said:

Have just come across your forum & it makes v interesting reading. Any advice as to whether it’s worth me applying for Childcare credits as I am due to retire in Aug 24 & have been told I can purchase up to 3 yrs of Nat.Ins. contributions (yes,I actually got through to the future pensions service!). By the time they get to looking into my application, I would have had to have made the choice as to how many I need to buy. I won’t know how many months I’m entitled to receive for looking after my GSon.

Which years are available to fill and when have you been looking after your grandson ?

You can only claim up to the 23-34 tax year and that final year will not be claimable until after October 2024 so you really need to get a claim in for any years up to 22-23 now.  You do though run the risk of it not being processed before reaching retirement although I believe any claim will be backdated to the date of submitting the paperwork.

Minnie34

Just thought I'd share some information on this subject. I submitted an Application for Specified Adult Childcare credits last November (2023) and rang today to check if it had been received. The call took around 50 mins before it was answered but the gentleman I spoke to was very polite and helpful. The form had been received and the wait time for processing is currently (as at Feb 24) 39 weeks. If you are close to retirement it might be worth ringing to see if they can speed the processing up but just be prepared to wait a while for the call to be answered.