clt has received letter from hmrc debt management tc overpayment unit Cumbernauld requesting repayment in full of substantial sum by 22 Sept in default of which enforcement proceedings will be commenced.

clt has utilized dispute procedure some 12 months ago but to no avail.

is there any scope to take further action at this 11th hour stage?

overpayment seems to have resulted due to wtc continuing in payment after clt employment ceased due to clt sustaining severe head injuries in rta which have resulted in short term memory impairment.

any suggestions welcome

Thanks

Iain

Hi Iain

My suggestion would be to contact Cumbernauld and request that recovery is suspended because you are disputing on behalf of the claimant again. I would argue that TCO have failed to consider all of the evidence (i.e. the severe head injuries) in applying the reasonableness test.

I would then send a new dispute arguing that it was HMRC error and it was not reasonable for the claimant to realise the award was wrong due to the head injuries. COP 26 states that they will reconsider a dispute where there is new evidence (and subsequently suspend). Unless their decision letter spells out (which they normally don't) that they considered the effect of the head injuries, then I would use this as a ground that not all evidence was considered. Presumably you can obtain medical evidence.

Additionally it is probably worth getting the local MP involved as they can raise it with TCO via their special team. Either way recovery should be suspended whilst they look at this again.

We are still trying to ascertain via the consultation group how long they will suspend (i.e. whether it will continue whilst case goes to Adjudicator for example) but your case seems to fall into those mentioned above.

Victoria

Victoria

I have recently had two cases where suspension continued (without any hassle!) until after Adjudicator's decision.

One was a case involving Cumbernauld - we simply wrote & told them no payments would be made until the issue was resolved, and heard nothing further. That case is now with the Ombudsman. So far, Cumbernauld have not asked for payment. If/when they do, we will point out it is still not resolved & see whether they press for payment.

The other case involved deduction from ongoing benefit & I beleive this has now started following adverse Adjudicator's decision.

Iain

If this ends up with the money having to be paid (& it could be a long time if you go to Adjudicator & Ombudsman as above) then it is possible to get payment over longer than 12 months agreed - provided an Income & Expenditure statement is supplied which shows more rapid repayment is not affordable. (I have one where repayment - if the rate agreed is not varied - will take 16 years, but the circumstances are exceptional so I think this would be highly unusual.)