I officially HATE Tax Credits!!! Can someone give me pointers on how to deal with this situation.....I can see Ombudsman on the horizon, but I need some help with what to do right now.

Cl suffers from severe mental health problems, enhanced care plan, CPN input, the works.
I wrote a letter to the TCO asking for copies of all correspondence to be sent to me, so that I could make sure things were dealt with and not left as cl has a tendency to avoid correspondence and she lives alone with a 13yr old child.
TCO phoned my Office a couple of months ago asking if cheques issued should be sent to me. I, of course, said NOOOOOO!!! So was assured that the payments would continue to be sent to cl. Late yesterday afternoon visited cl who has many and varied benefit problems...just as I was ready to leave I asked if her CTC payments were coming through ok only to be told
"CPN phoned TCO for me yesterday, they said the cheques were being sent to you. But it's ok I know you won't steal them".

Assured cl that I had never received any cheques for her and that TCO had been told categorically NOT to send the cheques to my office thatI was advocating for the cl not appointee. She said she believed me but I'm not 100% sure that she did.
I've never heard of cheques being issued to a third party without appointee status, I know we have never received the cheques (hell, they dont even send me copies of the correspondence like I asked) and to top it all off I think they have bolloxed up the trust my cl had in me. It took me months to get her to engage with me in the first place. Short of going postal on the TCO any suggestions??

how terrible! i can't remember who said never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but it's a useful thought to hold on to...

it's most likely that this is explained by careless, and very damaging information from a TCO idiot who didn't read the screens properly, but with other people's money, you can't take any chances. there is a possibility of a fraud taking place here, and i think you have to proceed on that basis, and raise this with the most senior contact you have in HMCR for them to investigate.

the damage to your client relationship and the slur it casts on you are capable of being repaired, but... supposing cheques are being issued...who are they going to? you are not receiving them, and your client is not receiving them...

my first thought was you should contact the CPN for confirmation of the telephone call, but then i realized that a question mark falls over the CPN too. this is how very damaging and nasty this matter is.

you know that you were asked to receive client's cheques, but little else.

when i worked in the DSS we had a standing instruction covering any letters saying a cheque was enclosed which the receiving officer did not receive. it was treated very seriously, the starting point was potential internal fraud, even though the explanation would turn out to be that the writer had forgotten to enclose it, or had expressed themselves badly. HMCR have to investigate this on that basis, that there is a potential internal fraud, requiring immediate action.

how very horrible...

jj

This is indeed nasty!

I feel you definately need to speak to the CPN and find out what exactly was said in the telephone call.

Then contact your local MP and get them to phone the MP hotline number they have, in the first instance, to see if they can find out what's happened to your clients money.

Complain to TCO with copies to MP's office and i'd also write to the director of the TCO and complain to them too.

Thanks for your replies. I contacted the CPN this morning and she verified what cl told me. I also contacted someone at the TCO who read me the whole screen. Both telephone calls to me asking if payments should be issued to me are logged, immediately followed by my response that all payments should be issued to the cl (this bit wasn't relayed to the CPN).
The TCO seem to feel that because emergency payments were issued to my client (they replace missing payment cheques as a matter of course, without investigation) amounting to over £1k, that I should just let it go.
I have written to the complaints director pointing out that even just a simple misreading of the screen could have had serious implications for me as a lone worker, not to mention my reputation with the CMHT.

margie,
although i don't really expect HMCR to give a damn about their actions harming the professional reputations of others, or even having a clue about damaging trust, they get very up themselves over their duty to protect public funds when it suits them, eg investigating individual claimants.

the fact remains that over £1k has gone missing, involving a beneficiary with serious mental health problems - a group regrettably seen by some as easily exploitable - and the revenue were aware of this and prepared to issue the cheques to someone else - they have stated to one professionalk that the payments were made to another...i think they have quite a lot of explaining to do...

jj

"The TCO seem to feel that because emergency payments were issued to my client (they replace missing payment cheques as a matter of course, without investigation) amounting to over £1k, that I should just let it go...."

Margie, if that's basically what they said to you then the first thought that would come to the minds of others (far more cynical than I could possibly be) that it looks and sounds like a face saving cover up.

This is the IRS after all, saying they're happly to reissue cheques without arguement, and then saying that you should just forget about it: doesn't sound like the IRS I know and love.

Received a phone call from TC complaints apologising for the delay in responding but assuring me that from Jan '06 3 payments had been issued to cl and sent to my Office and asking if I really wanted the reply in writing.
Told them that we never received any payments.....now I know how cl's feel when their defence is "I never got the letter". Complaints officer could verify that cl had had these 3 payments re-issued through her local IR Office, but couldn't tell me if the cheques allegedly sent to my Office had been returned or cashed. The system told her the payments had been cashed but she didn't know if it referred to the payments from the IR Office or the cheques....it also told her that 3 payments had been returned, but again she couldn't verify if these payments were the ones allegedly sent to me. Now she has to contact Washington for them to contact Worthing to authorise the cheques being sent back for signature verification. Definitely looking like an Ombudsman complaint to me... if I haven't reached retirement age before they eventually sort it out and let me know, in writing, exactly what went on.