I have a couple of clients at the moment who have (several months ago, in both cases), ended their entitlement to WTC, and have informed the Tax Credit Office at the right time.
Their payments, however, have continued. They have both acted properly in making the Tax Credit Office aware that payments are continuing when the claimant believes that they are no longer entitled. They have then been informed that ,due to a problem , payments cannot currently be stopped. In both cases, officers on the helpline went on to inform them that they would still be able to claim their DWP benefits in the normal way (in both cases, this was IS by reason of incapacity for work).They have been told that their claims are in a "processing queue". In one case, they have been in this queue since June '06!
Their I.S. claims have been disallowed due to WTC continuing to be paid at a rate higher than the I.S. applicable amount. As these cases came to my attention at different stages, I have taken two different approaches.
In Case#1, I have lodged an appeal against the refusal of IS, as although the client is receiving the money, they have been advised by the Revenue that the overpayment will be recovered, and it should not therefore be treated as income. This individual is doing their utmost to spend as little of this money as possible.
In Case#2, a complaint has been pursued against the inaction of the Tax Credit Office,and a customer support officer has provided a letter in which she clearly states that the customer has acted properly and done everything that could reasonably be expected of them, accepting that the problem has arisen entirely within the TCO's own administration processes. She has told me that an overpayment recovery letter will automatically be issued when the payments are stopped, at which point they should again raise a complaint, and refer the officer responsible for the claim back to her letter, and thereby challenging the recovery of the overpayment. This client has no option but to live off this money. In the meantime, they are falling into council tax arrears, and their mortgage interest will not be paid for several months to come.
Any ideas?
How widespread is this?
I have also written to our local MP
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