tax credits

[beverleymot]

finally spoke to tax credits as they were closed until today and i didnt receive my payment this week- apparently they received communication saying that i DIED on 30th September! very unimpressed and shaken by this.... i find it more amazing though that they can just write someone off without a death certificate, and not even send a letter to my partner stating that he will need to reapply as an individual!

[beverleymot]

your post wasnt ignored boo i am grateful for it :-)

[beverleymot]

thanks redhelen so there is no excuse then for them then to not be able to find the call!!

[redcrx]

if you look at it the other way, if someone had died and then their claim was suddenly reinstated by someone claiming to be them, Im sure theyd soon find all calls and correspondance relating to it :)

[annie0000]

beverly, the call will have been recorded, there is a chance that the storage has failed at some point and lost it. I think it more likely though that there is no call allocated to your NI number - whoever took the call or actioned the notification of death has made a typo and it has been allocated to you NI number but the call never has. It would therefore be like looking for a needle in an haystack trying to find it as presumable the call could have been made at any time over the last month.

Personally I think i wouldtry my chances with the bank re the charges first, then HMRC.

The other way to look at it is that some poor child or children are now without a parent :o(. Additionally they are going to have to go through the hassle of phoning HMRC again and possibly having to repay money sent in error - just what you don't need when you are already grieving.

Seems to me that an error has been made, people aren't perfect and make mistakes, but I'd rather at your end of the error than theirs.

[beverleymot]

thanks everyone for your comments... much appreciated... tax credits are calling me tomorrow with an explanation ( hopefully)- ill keep you all posted!! :-)

[sherrardk]

HI Beverley - think it is unlikely that you will get a suitable (if any) explanation. Wanted to add to your post that I think a lot of people don't realise how stressful it is to be on a low income/benefits and to have to be reliant on the benefit system to make ends meet. When a payment is delayed it can be very stresssful wondering where it has gone and if you will ever receive it. I have been in this position and it has made me re-evaluate my opinion of how hard it can be for the vast majority of people on benefits (yes, I do realise that there are some lazy ar$es out there who just dont want to work). Hope you get your payments reinstated soon.

[Halifaxmum]

Hi beverley, they HAVE to record every call, along with the date & time (to the second) so if they tell you any different, they are lying. (The recording is done automatically, but the recordings can be deleted, accidentally!?!)

Unfortunately, the Tax Credit call centres (along with all HMRC call centres) are staffed by people who have had 2 weeks training at the very most - they are given scripts to read out, with no understanding of what they are saying, and no background, so they do not understand how TC work.

This is a reflection of this Government (and the previous one)'s attitude to so-called 'customer service' - i.e if you claim any sort of benefit, you are not worth bothering about.

Sorry but you were lucky to even get through to the TC helpline! I have tried to call them (am, pm, evenings & weekends) but either got the busy tone or was put through to a recorded message thanking me for my call, asking me to try again later and hanging up!

[sara3]

redhelen, I agree with you. some people are happy to rant and rave when something goes wrong, but fail to notice (or appreciate/care etc) when it goes right.. which (on the whole) it does.

[annie0000]

Hi Red whilst I agree with you completely re the calls having been recorded - I sometimes work on the other end of that in that I carry out monitoring of recorded calls - not for the HMRC - a call will be recorded, but I suspect that it will have been allocated under the wrong number (NI number?) so unless they know who took the call and the time it was taken or the Ni number that the caller was actually calling about, or the number that the call was made from, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I would imagine that there are hundreds of call handlers and we are talking about a possible time period of a month. Even if they could narrow it down to within a day or so of the transaction having taken place, it will still be a big task. I suspect that they will only find it when the person who originally phoned in, phones back because the payments are still being received - even then the chance of someone matching that error up with beverley's is pretty slim.

I think that they will just have to accept that an error has been made and deal with it.

I still think that the bank should be sympathetic especially if the HMRC back up beverley's tale.

[beverleymot]

hi guys thank you all so much for your comments!! hmrc didnt call me - i ended up calling them and by the sounds of it they had no intention of calling me- in fact the bloke dealing with it couldnt even be bothered to talk to me he gave the girl a message to give to me!! anyway they have now decided that it was NOT communication, and it was someone with a n.i number very similar to mine that they had received a death certificate from! i did ask why that when the n.i number was typed in the name on the certificate wasn't double checked against the name on the system but they had no explanation!!.... i have to apply to claim back phone calls and bank charges. i have also spoke to my bank who are aware i have another dd coming out friday and they will not charge me for this... suddenly seeing a light at the end of it all!!