Hi,

I have an enquiry you may be able to help me out with.

A client has been working for 30 hours a week and recieving both Working and Child Tax credits. She also recieves DLA at the Higher rate for care and Lower rate mobility.

She has been sent a letter from the Inland Revenue saying that they have information that she is not in receipt of the DLA at the higher rate, they claimed to have enclosed a form for her completetion, but there was no form, and they said they wanted the form returned by (exact quote) "dd/mm/yy". I have seen this letter.

I have advised that she send a copy of her DLA award notice (which still has two yeas to run I have seen this document too.) Is there anything else I should advise her to do. She is very anxious that she is being 'probed' into when she can see she has done nothing to warrant this.

I wonder if there is a complaint route she can go down regarding the letter,missing form and missing return date.

Any advice grarefully received.

COP 1 is the leaflet that explains how to complain.

I would phone the helpline for advisers and find out what's going on and why they've decided to investigate.

I'd get the name and office address of someone for the client to send the DLA information to so that hopefully someone actually looks at it.

If your client still gets no-where involve your local MP.

HMRC seems to be gradually checking up on people claiming the severe disability premium. I had a case like this a while back. I believe they may be cross checking their info against the DWP DLA records.

In your case, if the client is on the top rate of the care element then she is entitled to the SDP. Has her DLA changed (upwards to the top rate) at any time after she started claiming TCs? If it has it is just possible that the box on the original claim was wrongly ticked and that some of the SDP was paid incorrectly as a result.