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TCC’s Thoughts Regarding The New COP26 The new COP26 is basically a rewrite of what HMRC deem reasonable. HMRC have not dispensed with the reasonableness test, they have just stopped calling it that, while adding several more obligations onto claimants. And again, claimants won’t get to see this document before things go belly up. The format of COP26 is obviously designed to make the issue look accessible, but yet again there is no proper explanation of, or differentiation between, the rights of Dispute and Appeal. HMRC also fail to separate different issues, giving claimants no understanding of how the system operates. For example, listing changes to relationship status in with Changes of Circumstances - as if they would have vaguely similar effects on a claim, which they don’t. The list of how overpayments are caused fails to mention invisible on-going claims that people know nothing about, so they think they are not currently receiving Tax Credits and therefore don’t report Change of Circumstances. It also fails to mention the continuing computer errors that still exist five years after the system was implemented. COP26 attempts to reduce the £25,000 income disregard to something a lot simpler and safer than it actually is, and also fails to acknowledge that the claims are guesswork and forever out of date. By the time a claimant has updated their details or reported errors, and HMRC have processed them, the details could already be out of date again. They are obviously refusing to address the inherent flaws of an annualised system. In ‘Your Responsibilities’, HMRC state ‘if you spot errors’, sounding very fair and reasonable – the implication is that they can make mistakes, and claimants can miss them too. However, two paragraphs later it is stated that ‘you must report ALL errors’. HMRC then say that they will write-off any overpayment caused after 30 days of you reporting their error, but conveniently make no mention of any write-off for the overpayment already caused by it. It seems that HMRC have two chances to get it right with no detriment to themselves, but claimants get none as they are required to pay all overpayments no matter what caused it, who failed to spot it or whether it was actually reported promptly. Reporting errors requires an understanding of what the content of the form is supposed to look like, yet HMRC make no allowance for not spotting subtle errors that, to the untrained eye, appear correct. HMRC proclaim under ‘We Will Check’, that they will check claimants made contact when they said they had. However, there is no promise to record all calls and give them verified time and date stamps. HMRC routinely lose information, or simply don’t open correspondence because of personnel shortages - yet there is no promise to safely file all correspondence in a centralised system, where it can be found easily. It is also officially implied that the CAB are, once again, HMRC’s complaints and HR department. We wonder how the CAB feel about that? In summary, HMRC have detailed, to an unreasonable degree, everything they expect the claimant to do right all of the time, yet have left their tasks vague enough to allow themselves the ‘flexibility’ of application they are so fond of. |
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Tax Credit Casualties (TCC) is a voluntary, unfunded, not for profit
organisation run by members for members. We cannot take any responsibility for
decisions made by HMRC, The Parliamentary Ombudsman, The Adjudicator, or any
other organisation, regarding claimants cases. We offer free advice on how to
dispute unfair overpayments based on our own experiences, the experiences of
other claimants and HMRC guidelines.
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