Up till now, I have only ever contacted the Tax Credit office by letter (and normally get a reply within 6 weeks or so). However, I needed to telephone them today in respect of a client who had previously given me written authority to act on their behalf, and in respect of whom I have in the recent past received two letters from the Tax Credit office.

So, naively, I rang the number on the letter (0845 3003900, which is their helpline), only to be told they couldn't speak to me and I needed to phone the dedicated helpline for advisers. When I asked for the number of this line I was told (a) they couldn't give it out for security reasons and (b) they didn't know it anyway.

As it's an urgent enquiry (payments have inexplicably stopped) what the **** am I supposed to do now?

Reps line is 0845 3003946. You will need to set up an office identification number (OIN) with them, then fax them authorisation signed by the client (both for joint claims) on their own form before they will discuss cases without the client being present.

Thanks for this. Now I know. Very helpful when the client is the other side of London.........

However, be warned that it doesn't always work. I rang IR this morning about a client and suddenly, inexplicably, they have no record of having authorisation to speak to me in spite of having had a record of said authorisation when I rang them on 14/12 & 22/12 respectively. This has happened quite often lately- am just in the process of writing to Customer Services to give off about it.

Old tips are the best - keep ringing the helpline. If you get a northern english accent say wrong number. Keep ringing till you get a Scottish accent - they don't seem to insist on TC689s etc.

Whoops perhaps I had better clarify that this has nothing to do with the people who come from the North of England and Scotland. It's just that there are two offices who seem to run the helpline and the one based in Scotland seems to have a different DPA policy.

You may well get a Socttish person working in the North of England office and vice versa, or someone in either office following the other office's policy, but it's a good rule of thumb.

Surprise surprise - rang the advisers number this morning and had no trouble discussing the case at all - without the need to fax through authorisation. I seem to recall the person I spoke to had a Geordie accent - perhaps he was on a high after Newcastle's good fortune on Sunday......

It always amazes me that these adviser numbers are put on this board with no regard to security, the reason the tax credit advisers dont have the number for CAB or DWP lines is to stop them giving it out to anyone who asks for it. And now it has been published on this board for anyone to see, it only takes a person to know a few details about someone else, call the number you have just listed, and have total access to a claimants records.

as detailed above, even with the reps line number

'You will need to set up an office identification number (OIN) with them, then fax them authorisation signed by the client (both for joint claims) on their own form before they will discuss cases without the client being present.'

found a news story we did in august on the office identificatiion number issue ...

Faxing an authority to deal with an urgent tax credits query: Inland Revenue introduce new system

IR says the system was set up 'to ensure that we preserve the confidentiality of customer information and protect personal details from bogus callers. Before we discuss a claimant's tax credits affairs with a third party, we need to be sure that they are who they say they are and that the claimant (or claimants where there is a joint claim) have given their consent' ...

it does however focus on calling the IR on the Tax Credits Helpline .... is the same system not in place for the adviser number?

Shawn
Yes, the system is just the same on the adviser number.