I am incredibly frustrated chasing up what should be an automatic backdatting entittlement. This is mostly from the change over from Income Suport to Child Tax Credits.

a) It seems to take months and months and the helpline can give no target figure on how long the process is going to take.

b) It is impossible to speak to anyone who actual knows about the individual case and to know at what point a delay has become unacceptable and where would be legitinmate for a client to make a comlpaint and to persue compensation.

- Does anyone know of a national campagain to highlight this as a Social Policy issue or have any ideas on how long I should be waiting before making official complaints.

Regards Richard Pearce (St Pauls Advice Centre - Bristol)

Hello Richard,

I have had a number of these calls where backdating is required, and the usual routine is to refer it to the TCO for them to look into. They are not priority one (at least not to the TCO) and I have also worked as TCO where I backdate them aswell. To my surprise it is just a case of changing all the dates on the claim to when you want the backdating to start, almost always something an adviser can do if they have the simple knowledge, how this helps you I dont know, just thought you may be able to use it.

Hello 'Richard'

I always take the view that a robust approach to complaining tends to pay dividends. Check out the Code of Practice

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs/cop1.pdf

We seem to get better results when a local MP takes an interest in the case.

I take it your contact problems are with the Tax Credit advisers line, not the normal number?

In terms of national campaigns, how about the Tax Credits Monitoring Network? Details on the CPAG site.

http://www.cpag.org.uk/

Hope all well

Rob