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Ali M-W
Da Tech(y ones)
3296 Posts |
Posted - 15/12/2008 : 07:17:40
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If I remember right, there's more than one Michael Foster. Doesn't sound like it's Michael Jabez Foster or he might be more sympathetic:
If tax credits can be criticised, it must surely be on the grounds that they are just too complex. The average recipient relies entirely on official calculations, and it is nigh on impossible to know whether payments are right or wrong… one simply hopes that the outcome is correct…A benefit should always have two qualities: knowledge of eligibility and knowledge whether what one receives is right or wrong. It is a simple test that tax credits, sadly, do not meet….Through my constituency casework, I have been made aware of several cases…in which an award has been terminated after failure to finalise within the permitted deadline. When that happens, the whole amount paid during the tax year becomes recoverable, even if the family’s circumstances meant that they were fully entitled to all that they received…In many cases, sums of £5,000 or £7,000…are being demanded…Sometimes it is alleged that the forms have been returned, but the Revenue denies receipt. Who knows? I do know, however, that the draconian policy in such situations causes harm…families are being asked to pay, out of no income or a reduced income, an award to which they were entitled, and are thus being plunged into poverty. That cannot be right….I am talking about people who are entitled to the payments that they receive, but who through administrative failure…are penalised in the way that I have described. To plunge deliberately such families into poverty is not just an administrative failing, but something of which we should be ashamed….I can think of no other part of the tax system that imposes penalties as draconian as the loss of one’s entire benefit, as does the tax credit system. Given its purpose, the ombudsman is quite right when she said that to deny reinstatement causes “far too harsh a penalty for the delay, works entirely against the policy objectives of the scheme and unnecessarily causes customers avoidable distress and hardship”…. I want the Government to deal with it now. They have had long enough. There is no excuse or moral or legal reason it should not happen immediately. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm081022/halltext/81022h0011.htm
OCT 12 - “MORE COMPASSION NEEDED WITH TAX CREDIT OVERPAYMENTS” SAYS MP Hastings and Rye MP Michael Foster has tabled a parliamentary motion calling for greater leniency to be shown to people who receive tax credit overpayments in error… http://www.michaelfoster.org.uk/4cbe0dfd-ed00-a694-419c-1bad4dcd30cd
It must be the other Michael Foster. You could try writing to him pointing out that his namesake is more helpful than he is, or - if it does turn out to be your MP - ask him why his rhetoric is so at odds with the reality of his support (or lack of it)? Just a thought...
Trinity: No one has ever done anything like this.
Neo: That's why it's going to work.
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Alan the Geordie
Da Purple one
2787 Posts |
Posted - 15/12/2008 : 08:48:04
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>>It must be the other Michael Foster. You could try writing to him pointing out that his namesake is more helpful than he is, or - if it does turn out to be your MP - ask him why his rhetoric is so at odds with the reality of his support (or lack of it)? Just a thought...<<
I agree.
But if it's the same bloke or not he shouldn't be allowed to wriggle off the hook.
His salary is paid by YOU therefore he works for YOU and it's up to YOU to make sure that he does!!
No nurse, I said "Are my test results back?" NOT "Are my testicles black?" .. but thanks anyway!! |
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ATCS
Rank; Hector Tax Inspector
22 Posts |
 Posted - 18/12/2008 : 10:13:53
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Sorry for not replying sooner have had big problems with our internet connection, some time it works and most of the time it doesnt!
It is the other Michael Foster (not Michael Jabez Foster). I did mention to his secretary that I was going to speak to my husbands accountant and I'm not sure whether the reference to the accountant stems from that.
I did ring our accountant (he apparently used to work for inland revenue many years ago and knows what they are like). He told me that he didn't get involved in tax issues, but when I told him that I thought the tax office had reclaimed back what they had previously written off he did agree to look at the papers.
He has spoken to my husband and said that he is very busy at the moment and hasnt had chance to look at it.
However whether he does or doesnt I dont feel able to chase it up as we cant afford to pay him.
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Ali M-W
Da Tech(y ones)
3296 Posts |
Posted - 22/12/2008 : 08:21:08
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Hi ATCS – why not try a different tack?
Have you heard that HMRC is now using a new COP26 which lists all its responsibilities and all yours?
I went back to your original post to see where you might argue that HMRC had failed to meet its own responsibilities, and where you had met your own (as set out retrospectively by HMRC), and here’s a few ideas for the next letter, if it helps…
First of all, those responsibilities:
HM Revenue and Customs should:
o Give correct advice
o Record and use information accurately
o Correct errors notified by claimant
o Update reported changes in circumstances within 30 days
The main responsibilities for the claimant (from 1 February 2008) are to:
o Give accurate, complete and up to date information
o Report changes in circumstances
o Use the checklist to check every award notice
o Tell HMRC of errors in an award notice within 1 month
o Check that amounts received agree with the award notice
You write: “My saga began last year when after correctly filling out the review our award notice was sent out showing that I had an income of £0.00 I rang immediatly to let them know.I was not able to give them exact figures as I'd just had surgery and couldnt get to them .I quoted rough amounts from a previous claim and told them they'd already got the correct info.”
Okay, so you managed to: “Give accurate, complete and up to date information” and “to check [your] award notice” after which you were able to “tell HMRC of errors in an award notice within 1 month”. And when you write ‘my husband began recieving endless giros.After several phone calls and continually being told they were ours,we spent them’ you are basically showing that HMRC did not ‘Record and use information accurately’ , nor ‘correct errors notified by claimant’ , nor ‘Give correct advice’, nor probably even ‘Update reported changes in circumstances within 30 days’.
Even under the old ‘reasonable belief’ criteria you have a good case – if you can prove with CDs of your calls that you were told your award was correct – for write-off, but under the new COP26 it seems that you met all your responsibilities but HMRC failed all theirs!
I would suggest writing along these lines to HMRC, and copying this to the Tax Credit Casualties and your MP, and you can then see what happens. Good luck!
Trinity: No one has ever done anything like this.
Neo: That's why it's going to work.
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ATCS
Rank; Hector Tax Inspector
22 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2009 : 22:03:49
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Hi Ali thanks for your reply.
The TCO have admitted its their error, I have two letters admitting that they "failed to meet their responsibilities as set out in their COP 26" . I also the copy they sent to my MP.
My problem is that despite this admission they took the money back anyway , and have now closed the case. They failed to tell ME they had closed it. I only found out when my MP sent me a copy the TCO's letter.
I am currently waiting for a reply asking them why they have closed my complaint and they wrote to my MP and told him I was happy with the explanation their staff gave, when the conversation I had was very different.
Im expecting a reply sometime this month.
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Alan the Geordie
Da Purple one
2787 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 00:36:56
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>>I am currently waiting for a reply asking them why they have closed my complaint and they wrote to my MP and told him I was happy with the explanation their staff gave, when the conversation I had was very different.<<
I would suggest that you let your MP know about this - if you haven't already - and make him aware that this is typical of the shifty, slimy way these buggers operate and ask him if he thinks it's acceptable and what's he going to do about it!
"The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible
reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed."
Adolf Hitler |
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Computer Error
