Extract from yesterday's story on the News page:

"Dawn Primarolo, said that when HM Revenue and Customs set up a team to deal with disputed tax credit overpayments in June 2004, there were 105 full time staff equivalents working on the team. However, by the end of April 2005, the figure had increased to 495".

Well, that goes some way to explaining why it's been taking so long to get a response - given that there are still over 100,000 overpayment cases to be dealt with, an early response should not be anticipated ......

I aslo see that the overpayments saga has cost more than a small fortune so far - £50m written off and huge additional admin costs.

Just had a good decision regarding an overpayment.

Client 1st came to us 18/06/04 - yes almost 1 year ago!!

Now finally had decision - after a lot of hard work and involvement of the MP's office - that £5,460 overpayment was due to official error and it was not reasonable for the client to know this, therefore it will not be recovered.

This is our first "biggy" we've had a few small write off's so i'm really pleased.

Good end to a long long week!

Could you let us know the details of this case because it might help if it is similar to any I am dealing with to know what the official error was and what arguments you used.

I have just had two more positive decisions myself this week. The first one was a "Red A" overpayment of £4415.15, which was disputed in September 2004 and finally written off this week (well, I say written off, meaning the client has received the letter stating "you will not be asked to pay it back", but it has not yet been physically remitted on the award - I have yet to see an actual remittance, despite the first positive decision being received in March. I have been told by TCO that remittances are done in batches so they cannot give a timescale for when actual remittance will take place after a decision has been made. Very frustrating since there is no delay with recovery starting, so why should client have to wait for remittance?). What is also frustrating is that I have still have about four other "Red A" cases that as yet TCO are not accepting they have to write off and the process is taking so long (i.e. six stage process to dispute an overpayment and clients waiting up to nine months for a decision at just one stage.) I have tried to put pressure on TCO by writing to the next stage up, even sending letters to adjudicator, but each stage says they cannot look at case until decision at previous stage has been received. To add to the frustration Northern Ireland TCO is no longer dealing with 1st or 2nd tier complaints (stage 3 and 4 of the overpayment dispute process) so all cases have been referred to Preston and in any cases where we sent a letter to director's team (ie stage 4) we are receiving acknowldegments from customer relations team (ie stage 3), when this stage of process has already been completed!!! Now in the process of sending a letter to local MP requesting intervention for all outstanding cases!

The second case was a self-employed client who was in receipt of short term lower rate IB when making the tax credit claim in February 2003 (and so still classed as in remunerative work). The claim form only asks you to tick box if in receipt of IB, but does not specify which rate. By May 2003 client automatically went to short-term higher rate, but essentially her circumstances had not changed so no report was made to helpline. Tax credit computer was obviously not programmed to automatically take away WTC entitlement after client had been in receipt of IB for six months. After annual review process last year overpayment was notified to client because client had reported she was no longer self employed because she was then on long term IB. Been pursuing this case since August 2004 on the grounds that client's circumstances did not change, so nothing to report and TC computer should be programmed for this situation. Eventually received positive decision yesterday that overpayments for 2003/04 and 2004/05 will be written off in full (total amount £3671.78).

Sorry about the length of this rant, but the frustration with dealing with the TCO is really getting to me!

Andrea

Sorry, I forgot the most important bit - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Thank you!

The frusration is very real isn't it?! I feel we could do with an advisers help group!!!

My case was simple really:

Client claimed Tax Credits, his wife is working and he's long term sick.

Tax Credits refused because TCO input the wrong income for Mrs. Client.

Client rang TCO who said they'd put it right but never sent client an award notice with the updated information on, did start to pay him though.

TCO then realise some many months down the line that they took the income off altogether and clients have been receiving maximum WTC!

TCO insited clients must have had a notification - they did not! And this was our argument, how could the client have reasonably been expected to know they were being overpaid when they did not have any notification?!!

Any way, done now thank God, i'm off home to start the weekend!!

Good luck to all of us with TCO in the future!!

WHAT IS GOING ON!!

Another year long case cleared up today.

£7,500 overpayment - just received letter from TCO, their error and not reasonable for client to know so not recoverable!!

Can't quite believe this - is anyone else getting results like this all of a sudden?!!

Far be it for anyone to even suggest ulterior motives, but could it be that this issue is starting to become politically embaressing, just as the CSA did before it ..........

Feel like that myself but then i'm known for being just a tad cynical!! Must've been doing this job too long!