Tax Refund Cheque Reissue Delay

Riverstone58

Hello!, and hope this is the right place.

 At the end of January I phoned HMRC to reissue a tax refund cheque as I'd completely forgotten about the original and it was way past the 6 month cheque limit.

Lovely lady helped me and said it would take 6 weeks which is also what it says on the government website, although on the IVR before I got through it said 60 days.

She was having some system issues and said she would put it through when it finally loaded and so I said I'd call back the next day just to check everything was OK. Phoned the next day and another lady confirmed it had and would take 60 days (same as the IVR) and so I left it that.

Phoned them back after nearly 70 days last week when an extremely helpful man could only confirm that the reissue had been requested but that it hadn't been sent. He explained those are the only details they can see, the request and if a cheque has  been sent or not and said he will escalate it through.

This is a personal - not business - tax refund following a past redundancy so does it/can it really take this long?

sheramber

Old records would have to be checked.

Confirmation  would  be requested from the paying bank that the cheque had not been cashed.

They would have to check old records and reply. 

All that would take time, depending on the volume of work at each stage.

This is one of the busiest times for HMRC, who  were  already reported to have a back log of work.

The best time to phone is as soon as lines open, before the queues build up. 


 

Riverstone58

sheramber said:

Old records would have to be checked.

Confirmation  would  be requested from the paying bank that the cheque had not been cashed.

They would have to check old records and reply. 

All that would take time, depending on the volume of work at each stage.

This is one of the busiest times for HMRC, who  were  already reported to have a back log of work.

The best time to phone is as soon as lines open, before the queues build up. 


 

The best time to phone is as soon as lines open, before the queues build up. 

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate the issuing bank has to check a cheque hasn't been cashed etc but as cheques are cleared electronically that should take the issuing bank seconds. And even though it may be their busy period it seems a bit excessive for 10 weeks and counting for the straight reissue of a cheque.

TheSpectator

Riverstone58 said:

sheramber said:

Old records would have to be checked.

Confirmation  would  be requested from the paying bank that the cheque had not been cashed.

They would have to check old records and reply. 

All that would take time, depending on the volume of work at each stage.

This is one of the busiest times for HMRC, who  were  already reported to have a back log of work.

The best time to phone is as soon as lines open, before the queues build up. 


 

The best time to phone is as soon as lines open, before the queues build up. 

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate the issuing bank has to check a cheque hasn't been cashed etc but as cheques are cleared electronically that should take the issuing bank seconds. And even though it may be their busy period it seems a bit excessive for 10 weeks and counting for the straight reissue of a cheque.

Oh how naive, the amount of people involved in HMRC  to cancel the payable order, which goes up the chain, then await confirmation that it hadn't been cashed which then goes back down the chain for the admin to re-issue is crazy. It's a very manual process.

sheramber

Is long did it take you to deal with the cheque which could never been deposited in a bank in  minutes?

Riverstone58

sheramber said:

Is long did it take you to deal with the cheque which could never been deposited in a bank in  minutes?

The tax refund was given very shortly after I was made redundant.

The cheque took no more than 2 weeks to arrive after I phoned HMRC enquiring about one and with everything else I had going on at the time I put it to one side. 

I was - and am - becoming  increasingly forgetful, especially with no focus on having anything to go out to, and as the bank isn't that easy for me to get to I quite simply forgot about it.