I could do with some advice (or at least reassurance that I'm not missing anything). Have a c whose partner left her 2005. She spent @the next 18months not informing HMRC of this and filling in annual decs that they still a couple.
Eventually informed them when a tenancy support worker got involved due to rent arrears.
This led to o/p of over £5000 on 2 CTC awards due to not informing ch of circs.
I've been arguing for over yr that no loss to public purse (in fact the taxpayer has "won", as she also didn't claim IS for herself for the same period, meaning @£3500 benefit being unclaimed), English as 2nd language, a woman with no experience of ben system as partner used to do this, social isolation etc.
It's gone to the MP and back, but HMRC refusing to write off. Their reply to the MP says that their process does not allow discretion to be applied (?!). They refer to the revised COP26.
I keep asking them to use their discretion on hardship grounds, due to the effects this time of financial hardship has had and is still having on her and her 2 children. I also mention the length of time it would take her to re-pay, but a stock reply always comes back that if will cause hardship, need to talk to the Payment Helpline.
My questions are: 1/ Am I fighting a losing battle - it's clear that she didn't "fulfil her responsibilities" at least with a narrow reading of COP26. I've tried quoting CCM15630 re putting oneself in the claimant's shoes when considering reasonableness. However as this refers to making a correct claim and not about ch of circs - anybody know if this might work?
2/ If not, any point carrying on to AO/Ombudsman - any prospect may get a different response there?
3/ Discretion on hardship grounds. Am I right I in thinking that (in practice at least), it is the Payments Helpline section that apply this discretion (and this is why CSU saying they have no discretion)? If this is correct, do I need to give up on the complaints process before I can get it to the section that can consider applying discretion?
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