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I have to disagree with putting this kind of information in the news section, as it isn't available to us whose organisations can't afford or aren't willing to pay the £50 subscription.
But I have a question about the "security checks" involved in using the advisors number, as they seem to change every time myself and my colleagues use the number! On phoning the TCO, we have been told the following things, on different occasions, in the space of the past 3 months:
1. We won't talk to you unless the client is with you and we talk to them first (including when the client doesn't speak English)
2. No, you can't fax written authorisation and no, you can't have our fax number.
3. We will speak to you if you fax us written authorisation (they then gave us the fax number)
4. We can't accept this, it hasn't got your office code number on it.
5. We don't accept faxed authorisations, whether or not they've got an office code number on them.
6. We accept written authorisations by post and fax, they don't need a code number.
Does anybody know if the TCO have written guidelines about how they respond to phone calls on the advisers number, and what they require from advisers? Only it would be mighty handy to know. We could ask them to stick to their own rules when we phone them, if we only know what the rules are.(I have looked at the Inland Revenue's website: no information on this.)
While I agree with not advertising phone numbers intended only for advice workers on a site accessible to the public, the number should be available to all advisers. I heard that this advisers number for the TCO was originally only given to Citizens Advice Bureaux.
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