Tax Credits Compliance Interview

olgadapolga

Update: They didn't ring me. I waited the hour specified in the letter then at a minute past the hour, I rang them to find out what was going on. After being on hold for 27 minutes, I speak to a lovely gentleman who rearranged the interview for next Tuesday. He said that he couldn't see a reason why they hadn't rung me and maybe I'd been "overlooked". He said that he'd raise the issue with someone higher about their failure to call me.

Newcad

ElwoodBlues said:

Newcad said:

Yes there are reports that they are currently giving 4 months to make the claim for UC on migration letters instead of the usual three.

It isn't clear just why they are doing that, but is probably because of the Christmas period.

Even if you have savings above £16k so would only be eligible to UC for 12 months, and even though it will be reduced by £174 for savings between £6k an £16k, that's still 12 months worth of UC money in your pocket.

(If you feel that you don't need the money then claim it anyway, and give it to charity).

Yes, they say in the letter it's 3 months, but if you don't do it in time they write to you again and give you an extra month to claim and keep the transitional protection. But they will stop paying your tax credits after 3 months regardless. That's what happened to me anyway. Obviously, if you don't claim within the time period, you'll lose transitional protection and won't be eligible until your capital is below 16k. Lady in the job centre yesterday doing my id checks was aware that I had been on tax credits before, so maybe they'll extend the transitional protection longer, at their discretion?

No; you have misunderstood what we are saying.

For some reason the letters (at least some letters) are currently giving 4 months to make a UC claim before Tax Credits will stop. That's instead of the usual 3 months.

Then if you haven't claimed UC in those 4 months there is the extra month on top as well.

As said it's not clear why they are currently doing this - but it's probably because of the christmas and new year holidays.

Just stick to whatever date the letter says that you have to make a claim by.

ElwoodBlues

Newcad said:

ElwoodBlues said:

Newcad said:

Yes there are reports that they are currently giving 4 months to make the claim for UC on migration letters instead of the usual three.

It isn't clear just why they are doing that, but is probably because of the Christmas period.

Even if you have savings above £16k so would only be eligible to UC for 12 months, and even though it will be reduced by £174 for savings between £6k an £16k, that's still 12 months worth of UC money in your pocket.

(If you feel that you don't need the money then claim it anyway, and give it to charity).

Yes, they say in the letter it's 3 months, but if you don't do it in time they write to you again and give you an extra month to claim and keep the transitional protection. But they will stop paying your tax credits after 3 months regardless. That's what happened to me anyway. Obviously, if you don't claim within the time period, you'll lose transitional protection and won't be eligible until your capital is below 16k. Lady in the job centre yesterday doing my id checks was aware that I had been on tax credits before, so maybe they'll extend the transitional protection longer, at their discretion?

No; you have misunderstood what we are saying.

For some reason the letters (at least some letters) are currently giving 4 months to make a UC claim before Tax Credits will stop. That's instead of the usual 3 months.

Then if you haven't claimed UC in those 4 months there is the extra month on top as well.

As said it's not clear why they are currently doing this - but it's probably because of the christmas and new year holidays.

Just stick to whatever date the letter says that you have to make a claim by.

Sounds like they've changed things to give an extra month. Mine was dates 15th Feb, and told me I had to claim UC by 16th May to keep receiving financial support. Then just after 16th May (when my TC stopped) I got another letter saying that I needed to claim UC by 16th June to keep any right to Transitional Protection.

Maybe they're worried about delays because of the larger numbers starting to be managed migrated now, and being a bit more generous in case of any delays caused by the system/their side?

Newcad

To get back to the original post:

olgadapolga said:

I've been notified that I have a compliance interview in just over a week's time. ..........

I have absolutely no problem about the interview, I expect them to be carried out so that the Tax Credits Office remains accountable, etc.

What I'm struggling with is the huge list of expected documentation required. They want:

{Long list}

I'm going to struggle to get much of this together, .........

This was posted on Rightsnet (the forum for professional Advisors) late last night:

2. The ‘telephone interview’ letter being sent out by HMRC to many claimants who have received a migration notice is a) scaring many people, and b) tells claimants to obtain a lot of evidence/information in preparation for the interview.
In reality, the interviews are all short straightforward phone-calls, simply intended to ensure the claimants circumstances are correct in preparation for migration (and the TP calculation).

olgadapolga

Newcad said:

To get back to the original post:

olgadapolga said:

I've been notified that I have a compliance interview in just over a week's time. ..........

I have absolutely no problem about the interview, I expect them to be carried out so that the Tax Credits Office remains accountable, etc.

What I'm struggling with is the huge list of expected documentation required. They want:

{Long list}

I'm going to struggle to get much of this together, .........

This was posted on Rightsnet (the forum for professional Advisors) late last night:

2. The ‘telephone interview’ letter being sent out by HMRC to many claimants who have received a migration notice is a) scaring many people, and b) tells claimants to obtain a lot of evidence/information in preparation for the interview.
In reality, the interviews are all short straightforward phone-calls, simply intended to ensure the claimants circumstances are correct in preparation for migration (and the TP calculation).

That's pretty much what the Tax Credits Office told me when I rang them last week (and eventually got through) to say that I was going to struggle to get the information up together. 

I'll update if they actually bother calling me next week. 

olgadapolga

Update - the telephone call lasted three minutes and was just to confirm that my two sons are still in full-time non-advanced education. Wanted to know what they are studying (A-Levels and BTEC) and where. That was it. 

Quite frustrating that they sent a long list of required information that I spent a long time trying to obtain and they didn't need any of it.

Ah well, it's done. Now onto ringing the UC Helpline . . .

Newcad

Thanks for confirming that it was basically a 'nothing' of a phone call, and that the long list is just officialese nosense (for most people anyway).

I'm sure that your experience will be a great help to anyone else getting such a letter.

Newcad

It's a bit late now but the DWP have confirmed in this months 'Touchbase' email that Managed Migration notices sent out between certain dates did have an extra month added:

For migration notices that would have had a deadline date that fell between 11 December 2023 and 5 January 2024, 30 days has been automatically added to the claimant’s deadline date.

That will now have stopped happening and if you get a Managed Migration letter then you should stick to whatever deadline date the letter says that you have to make a claim by.