My father passed away 3 months ago and I am his executor.
I completed form R27 so my fathers income tax affairs could be settled.
First I got a letter saying there was a refund due to the estate and the calculations will be forwarded to me.
The second letter detailed the amount due but no cheque was enclosed but just over £500 was due to the estate.
I phoned the tax office and they said the cheque would be sent to me.
3 days later I got a letter asking me to write to the tax office if I wish to claim the £500 which I did.
I got the cheque today.
In total 4 letters have been sent when 1 would been sufficient and an additional letter was requested from me repeating what was requested on the R27 form.
At least they are consistent, if they write to say you are owed money, they always add that it will be sent separately. They always tell you that the dept that does the calculations isn't the same as the one that writes the cheque. I you ring up the office that writes the cheque they'll say it's been sent to another department for signing.
Your father would probably have said well done for being persistent though Bill.
From my experience of working in an office it may be all cheques are done centrally and maybe one person does the letter side and orders the cheque, then it is checked by supervisor who authorises cheque to be issued.
I can see probably it may be more economical to send out the cheque separately rather than have them back to sort with the letter but why they needed 4 letters I do not know.
It is also probably more secure as the person ordering the cheque will never handle it especially if it is processed in a different building possibly in a different part of the country.