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ReynardTheFox
Rank; Hector Tax Inspector
12 Posts |
 Posted - 07/01/2009 : 15:00:51
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I'm almost feeling a bit sheepish about my result, after reading about some of the long running battles that some people here have been having. However, my overpayment from 2003/4 - a total of £2300 - has been written off, and HMRC have even repaid me - without prompting - £1530 of recovered credits from the past 5 years.
Data requests aside, all it took was 2 letters - a standard RRR, sent last August, which they by default denied, followed up just before Xmas with a "I am still disputing this" notice. A few days ago I got a letter informing me I didn't have to pay the money back, and today I received a final award notice paying me back the credits they recovered against the overpayment.
Must say, I'm almost a little disappointed that that was all there was to it! I was quite looking forward to doing a little more detective work and proving my case!
A big "hats off" and thankyou to everyone who runs this site, and all those who have contributed to it. It was here that I learned:
- What kind of errors occurred, and why
- All about codes of practice, and how they applied to me
- My rights to access my personal data, and how to do it
- What steps to go through to dispute my case
- Most importantly, that it WAS possible to challenge HMRC and win!
In theory, some of the above information is available in my Tax Credits papers, if you look hard enough! It's almost as if they don't want you to know it! ;) It was very empowering, knowing there were people here to help, who would actually be fighting my corner... rather than trying to call my bluff and tell me I couldn't "appeal" !!
Reading through the dispute pack I must admit made me a little fearful... MP's? Going to court? Contacting the press? Would I be able to do all that? Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe the tide is turning a bit... let's hope so!
So there you go... chalk up one more point for the little people!
Best wishes, and good luck to everyone still fighting their corner!
RTF
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Ali M-W
Da Tech(y ones)
3296 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2009 : 07:17:56
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Hi Reynard - what fantastic news! And thanks so much for the kind words. It's great that you've found this site and all the great people who post and pitch in here to be helpful - it always gives everyone a great buzz when someone wins through!
Sometimes, just sometimes, the battle can be won without it taking years, reinforcements such as journalists from the Sunday Times and your MP, and hours and hours of your time. I struck lucky with my sister, who had £2000-odd written off after two strong letters, because HMRC had made a complete error in the first place in logging this as a recoverable overpayment (it should have been written off on discovery, apparently - indicating obvious HMRC errors, none of which ever got explained of accounted for, but we let the matter drop once the slate was wiped clean). Just sometimes we expect months of wrangling but get a faster solution, and I wouldn't feel guilty in any way! You may have hit the right buttons by writing a really persuasive dispute letter, or your dispute could have landed on an employee's desk who just went that little bit further in looking back over the available evidence. This game is so much luck, so much judgment and skill. They key, though, is to know in your heart of hearts you are not a criminal and hold fast to that conviction, no matter what HMRC retorts with. At each stage, make sure you're clear what HMRC is saying (if they haven't explained it well, then ask them to again!), and then base your response on demolishing that. Reynard, you list a number of things you've learned from the site and others here, and I am quite sure that informed in this way, you wrote an excellent letter and earned this success yourself. Well done!
I respect your reservations at contacting your MP and the Press, which you say made you 'a little fearful', but as someone who ended up 'quite looking forward to doing a little more detective work and proving my case!', there is still a great deal you can do to continue putting your new knowledge to good use and fighting the good fight! You're most welcome to join the campaign in any way you can, or would like to. I mean no disrespect to the many good people using this site and sharing their knowledge, when I say that largely this whole campaign has been waged by five or six people, and having now reached at least 68,000 people (judging by unique website hits) and being in direct contact with about 2000 people, I know that with just a few more hands to the plough we could do so very much more in 2009!
If you can find the time and courage to write to your MP telling her/him about your tax credit experiences and revealing some of those concerns which are detailed at www.taxCC.org and in this forum, and asking him/her to help put the system right, by bringing the Tax Credit Casualties to the attention of constituents having difficulties, putting a link on her/his website, asking Freedom of Information questions in the House and raising Early Day Motions, and considering the case for a non-fault Amnesty, then already by that one letter you will be helping others. There's lots of other things we need to do, as well, but MP awareness and support is something grassroots members can effectively and easily do, and I hope that you will consider this.
My own dream this year is to see this campaign bear fruit not just for people like you and me who have won their cases now, but for the suicidal and desperate man trying to make his meagre income stretch to his family and keep bailiffs from their door; the single mother fighting to get her payments reinstated and having nowhere to turn because she doesn't know she has any rights and no-one cares to tell her; the young woman with learning difficulties who wants to keep the money she's earning from her part-time job but is ending up repaying HMRC for the next ten years for old payments they'd got wrong; for the family living off industrial injury benefits after a serious accident who are faced with a nearly £30,000 bill; for those who have got County Court Judgments they were never even told about; and all the "innocent indebted" - to use Canon Jon from Durham's own apt description.
Didn't mean to rant on there, but it's an obvious fact that even 60 people can do more than 6. There are lots of examples throughout this site of what our individual members have done, are doing, and want to do, and if this tirade inspires just one additional member to put pen to paper and prod their MP into action, then I make no apologies!
Anyway, congratulations on a well-earned success, and please stick around if you can to help others here!
Trinity: No one has ever done anything like this.
Neo: That's why it's going to work.
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Result! £2300 overpayment written off
