Stopping Court Cases

First of all, if you are not totally sure about the jargon and terminology the Tax Credit Office (TCO) and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) use, please read Understand the Jargon, then return here.

If you have received a summons but haven't started the dispute process yet, please read Dispute Not Started?

If you have already started your dispute, the priority at the moment is to get the Court case stopped. You have good grounds to do this if you feel you have received no final response to your last RRR, dispute letter, data request, report of faulty data or complaint. This is because, if they have not done an RRR response, or they didn't send you the result, or if you have submitted an RRR etc. to either the Adjudicator or the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the process has not yet been exhausted. This basically means they can't take you to court yet.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that if you get to court you will have your say! HMRC can issue a 'Certificate of Debt', and the court HAS to find in their favour. Nothing you say will make ANY difference. Read A Cautionary Tale, if you haven't already!

The first thing to do is contact your MP as soon as possible. If you don't know who your MP is, or how to contact them, search for your MP's details using your postcode, constituency or their name. If you need an evening contact number for your MP, you can normally find these in the local directories for your area.

If your MP needs persuading that they need to act immediately, (like, right now!), insist that they are your only representation in this matter, it is their duty to uphold your rights and that they are the only person who can contact the offices below on your behalf.

Get your MP to ring the MP Tax Credit Hotline.  Your MP will probably need your National Insurance number. Get them to lodge a complaint that the Appeals/RRR/Dispute process has not been exhausted and order that the court case is withdrawn. If they need some guidance on what to say, tell your MP to use the arguments in the third paragraph, above.

Your MP should instruct the Directors' Customer Service Team to CONFIRM the case has been halted. If the Director's Customer Service Team refuses, point out that they are breaking their own legislation on recovery practice. If they will not confirm it, your MP needs to ring:

• The Court (although this will probably be for guidance on exactly who to contact to get it stopped).
• The Adjudicator's Office on 020 7930 2292.
• The Parliamentary Ombudsman on 0845 015 4033.
• The MP Tax Credit Helpline. (Your MP should have the telephone number for this).

Your MP should continue to contact the people above until the Tax Credit Office confirm the case has been halted due to the fact the dispute process has not been exhausted, and therefore recovery cannot take place. Once recovery has been halted, you will have some breathing space to complete the TCO Dispute process, then the extended appeals process.

Now go to How to Dispute. You may have started some of the steps, i.e. the Data Request (Dispute Step 2) and/or Contacting Your MP (Dispute Step 4). That's not a problem. Just make sure to do the in-between bits.

Sorry this is all so convoluted, but unfortunately that's the Tax Credit Office's fault.