Carolyn George of CPAG has contacted us, and is looking for feedback from advisers around the country in relation to what's happening in your area with regard to tax credit overpayments.

For example, CPAG has heard of situations where the Revenue has said that a claimant has been overpaid tax credits but, when s/he appealed, the Revenue presumes (wrongly) that they were appealing against the decision to recover the overpayment (rather than the fact that they had been overpaid), told them that there was no right of appeal, and did not refer the appeal to the Appeals Service.

CPAG are wondering how big a problem this is for claimants and advisers, and are interested to hear about any kinds of appeals (not just overpayments) where -

• the Revenue has told a claimant that s/he did not have a right of appeal and did not process that appeal and/or forward it to the Appeals Service; or
  
  
• there has been a long delay in the Revenue processing an appeal and/or passing it to the Appeals Service

see also today's news story ...

Tax credits overpayments: Help CPAG lobby for change

I have today received a letter from the Inland Revenue stating that there are no grounds for appeal against an overpayment.

The appeal was that the overpayment was due to official error.

I have forwarded a letter to the Inland revenue in this regard.

What is more confusing is that the leter states "Thank you for your letter dated 06/apr/04, asking for an appeal against the notice decision issued on 06/july/05". I must be Clairvoyant.


Willie Sinclair

I have dealt with a case similiar to that given in the example by Shawn. Client received new awards for two years TC's. They were glaring inconsistencies and the client said that notified changes were not actioned. I wrote on the client's behalf to appeal. I was fairly careful to make it clear that the appeal concerned the calculation of TC's, but received a letter saying that this was not a valid appeal. I wrote back in dispute.

HMRC rang me a few weeks later to say that there was no right of appeal and we should contact the appeals section. Long discussion followed about appeal rights etc and it transpires that the appeals officer did not have the original, quite detailed, letter as it had been archived!!

The appeals officer is now, helpfully, working with me to understand the calculation, which will hopefully negate the need for an appeal.

I've had a similiar case also, where the claimant compliance unit have, most unhelpfully, taken up the case.

I've got a few appeals outstanding where HMRC just don't acknowledge or act on the appeal.

sorry.... 2nd para should read ".... we should contact the OVERPAYMENT section...."

Hi,

I've had a similar case, where the client notified the Revenue that her daughter had left home, and of her partner's income. They issued an award which included the daughter and showed nil income for the partner. When they realised their error they issused a new award reducing entitlement. I helped her to appeal on the grounds that the amount of the award was wrong, not on the grounds that she was overpaid. Their reply was that the new award was simply an adjustment and therefore could not be appealed against. I replied saying that the award was a new decision about entitlement to credits, therefore it should carry a right of appeal. I also said that if this case went to an independent appeal tribunal the chair would be asked to decide whether the appellant provided the information to enable a correct decision to be made. If they did then any incorrect decision on entitlement would be the fault of the Revenue, not the customer. Would they also assess whether the client should have known they were overpaid? Hmmm....

I have told them that if they do not refer this appeal to a tribunal I will complain to the MP. I have had a number of overpayments refunded and compensation paid to the clients by going to the MP. But the only long-term solution is to give the right of appeal against overpayment decisions as opposed to decisions on entitlement.

I was pleased to hear that CPAG is considering challenging the legality of recovering overpayments while the client is disputing the decision. The DWP has always suspended recovery in this situation. I just hope that the Government does not decide to change the DWP rules instead of the Revenue rules.

What a nightmare!


Regards
Vaughan