DWP/HMRC didn't call

sceptredisle

Hardwater1 … same.  Had a call at 12.46 today on a 0800 number … BUT …I feel like I’ve been scammed! Male voice said he was from DWP so I “assumed” he was going to connect me with someone … which he didn’t! Now has my NI# and dob!

MrsSue

Hardwater1: There does not seem to be any consistency in the way these calls come in. And to say that they will only ring back twice is tantamount to emotional blackmail. It's utterly ridiculous to think that not only do people walk about with their mobile phones stuck to their ears all day - especially those of us who fit the relevant age group for these return calls - but also that they are going to be in the right circumstances to deal with DWP when the call comes through. 
If DWP had enabled online payments to top up pensions, and hadn't made it so hard for people to get through to them in the first place, these callbacks wouldn't be necessary.  It is their incompetence, yet we have to suffer.
I tried ringing back when I realised I had missed the call from them and had literally five minutes of blurb and menu options. I gave up. 
If you are planning to write, make it an official complaint, as I plan to do. Good luck.

karma_mechanic

I just had the long-awaited call. The text was last Wednesday...

They asked me whether I'd had a text relating to the callback. I answered that I had.

Then they said rapidly "if you fail to respond the call will be terminated". They said this several times as fast as possible.

I explained that I was still on the line but it was apparent that they weren't listening, just saying the above. Then they put the phone down.

I get the impression tthat they are making it as difficult as possible to interact with them.

MrsSue

Hardwater1 - and others! I had a similar call about 20 minutes ago. Fortunately, my husband answered it. I believe this is a genuine call from DWP. Their phone number starting with 0800 731 ties in. I too gave my NI number and DOB, and was told I would receive a call (I asked when. I was told this week or next!) after my payment history had been looked at.  I was also asked if I had received a text before the call. I told them, yes, last Monday, 14th,  but I did not receive a call on the Tuesday. I was then told the usual spiel about it being a new system... blah, blah. So I await my next call with baited breath... No, I don't, but at least it looks like we have got through the next stage!

daisy_1571

Same thing with me just now.  Cant work out if genuine or not.  Nothing else on forum or government website that I can see.  No idea what they could do with dob and nino?  Or who to tell to stop anything being fraudulently used?

daisy_1571

I phoned and got through fairly quickly.   Definitely genuine.  I spoke to someone who talked me through what I had already seen on the pension forecast site but could not give any info as to whether I qualify for credits or the s/e for certain missing years.  Information is that after speaking to them I had to phone hmrc.  Girl was fine but overall the call wasn't helpful as such.  She did tell me that as we had now spoken that counts as my proper callback.

I phoned hmrc, girl very helpful but tells me to search something on gov dot uk site to see if I think I qualify to declare myself 'self employed for ni conts'.  This is different to 'self assessment for tax purposes'.    If I do consider myself such, I've to phone back, talk to them, they will update my records.   After 72 hours it should show on my record.   Then I phone back again and they can tell me what my credits/conts situation is.

She also said I have (I think) 30 days after callback to pay  - so get moving after your callback folks

Daisy 

Johndonuts

Wagster said:

Hi,
I received a text message yesterday (Sunday) saying I would get a call from DWP today (Monday) between 8am and 6pm regarding buying NI contributions. There has been no phone call. Has anyone else had this happen?
Might I get a call tomorrow?
Is there any (worthwhile) complaints process?

Thanks,
Wag

I had the same thing happen to me. I waited all day yesterday, I definitely did not miss a call, no calls logged on my phone. I am very worried as I have not received another text since. Does anyone know what I can do please?

Johndonuts

I received a text on 23rd telling me to expect a call between 08:00 - 18:00 on 24th, the call did not come. Now I suspect this might be a scam. I have reported/forwarded the text to 60599 HMRC. 

If this is a scam, we need HMRC to help us quickly with this issue, as many people are waiting for a call from them. Are we going to know whether it is HMRC or a scammer when we receive a call? We could land ourselves in real trouble giving out our details. 

Sadly I couldn't get through to HMRC by phone, but will keep trying.

If anyone hears from HMRC and this is a scam, please let us know. These texts could be going out to millions of people, or perhaps HMRCs system sent them out in error and they were unable to fulfill the calls? But we need to be vigilant, these scammers are everywhere.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Johndonuts said:

I received a text on 23rd telling me to expect a call between 08:00 - 18:00 on 24th, the call did not come. Now I suspect this might be a scam. I have reported/forwarded the text to 60599 HMRC. 

If this is a scam, we need HMRC to help us quickly with this issue, as many people are waiting for a call from them. Are we going to know whether it is HMRC or a scammer when we receive a call? We could land ourselves in real trouble giving out our details. 

Sadly I couldn't get through to HMRC by phone, but will keep trying.

If anyone hears from HMRC and this is a scam, please let us know. These texts could be going out to millions of people, or perhaps HMRCs system sent them out in error and they were unable to fulfill the calls? But we need to be vigilant, these scammers are everywhere.

Is it HMRC making these calls 🤔

Most other posters are being called by DWP.

Johndonuts

If you receive a text and don't trust it, forward to 60599 

If you gave information to someone over the phone or by email you don't trust report it to security.custcon@hmrc.gov.uk.

If you want to report a suspicious email, forward it to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk

I really hope HMRC are on this, because we don't want to lose out on paying these gaps in our records.

I think we should have been given forms to fill out online to request paying for these gaps through our government gateway, then receive a callback. We should have a record of our request, what it was for, dates etc.. then the caller from HMRC would have details only they could know regarding this exact request. Are we being left open to scammers now? I have no record of my request, if I don't receive a call from HMRC, can they now say 'sorry no record of your request'.

I am actually feeling a bit anxious about this now, I'm other are too.