denzil@lcdi
disability advocacy worker, appeals and general ad, limavady community development initiative
Member since 17th Dec 2008
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wtc-childcare costs
Wed 07-Jan-09 04:17 PM |
my client separated from her husband 2 years ago, carried on with her job and claimed working tax and child tax credits in a single claim. she went to the local jobs and benefit office and got the details of an approved child minder who agreed to look after client's son for a couple of hours each school day for £65, tax credits covered usual 80%. all went smoothly till a year and a half later she got letter from hmrc explaining that she was using an unregistered childminder and that she had incurred an overpayment of almost £3,500.
when we made some enquiries we discovered that the childminder was registered when the arrangement began but had let her registration lapse and continued with her business, this had come to light in routine hmrc check.
as you can imagine TCO maintain that it is the claimant's responsibility to ensure that the childminder they use is registered and so far they refuse to change their decision. this seem harsh to me as my client appears to have taken all reasonable steps to comply with the rules and has fallen foul of TCO because of someone else's negligence. (initially she went to a solicitor to persue the childminder for the money but this has become too expensive. we could possibly go through the small claims court but even if the claim was successful would still be out of pocket.) id be interested to hear from anyone who has come across something similiar or has any thoughts on it, thanks and a happy new year to all.
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