it's really turning into a nightmare. The IR and annually calculated benefits are not up to meeting the immediate needs of the least well off - you'd think somebody might have considered _why_ social security benefits were weekly or even daily benefits, in the old days before performance targets were invented...
a recent client had a revised award notice telling him he'd been overpaid £1200+ WTC which he had to repay. there was still CTC awarded, but payments of both had stopped 4 weeks ago. He had no idea what could have caused the overpayment, and in the absence of a clue, we assumed the award was incorrectly calc'd in the first place.
however, client had since become unemployed, and he and his pregnant wife and 4 kids were surviving on £85. 75 JSA + child benefit. he quite reasonably complained of severe financial hardship.
i despached a letter to the IR PO box no. in preston asking for payments to be restored, and a week later, when he came to see if i'd had a reply (i hadn't), i sent him to the local tax office with a copy of my letter and my fingers crossed.
a few days latter, i received a piece of _general_ standard drivel from preston about adjusting annual awards, making additional payments in some cases to ensure that payments are not reduced to levels which would cause hardship, and they will be publishing a code of practice on the subject - which i had referred to anyway in my letter to them. Nothing addressing my client's particular case or the points i had raised. It was signed with a squiggle, with the title PROCESSING OFFICER, no name under it.
the only telephone number on the letter was the help-line number, which i rang, and moaned at someone about not having a proper reply, just a general stock letter, and he was actually quite helpful, giving me some information about hardship payments can be calc'd to 70% of the estimated next years entitlement and o/pts recovered over 3 years - all new to me - and tipped me off about speaking to the local tax office, because they know what they're doing there! : )
anyway, i phoned my client, and he was happy. his trip to the tax office was fruitful - they had paid him £1800. he hadn't a clue what it was all about, and neither have i... anyone?
jj
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