|
|
The Health Impact Of Tax Credit Overpayment
Tax Credits: Health, Hardship and 'Significant Distress' Former welfare minister Frank Field compared the use of tax credits to ease poverty to carrying out 'delicate keyhole surgery ' with a blunt 'hacksaw '. If you have fallen victim to hacksaw surgery, huge physical and psychological wounds are to be expected. I 'm no medical expert and cannot offer expert advice, only my own experiences and interpretations. But I write as a hacksaw casualty, a tax credit fiasco survivor, fighting back. Hearing that I owed the Tax Credit Office nearly 6000 pounds just before Christmas was a slicing blow. Any sense of control over my finances or my life was amputated. My enthusiasm for life bled away. Migraines hammered in my head, forcing me to my bed. What my prognosis was, I didn 't dare consider. Overcome with fear, disbelief and pain, metaphorically-speaking, I was on life-support. Continuing the bodged-surgery analogy: gradually I recovered from the shock of the overpayment diagnosis, although instead of explanations I got only indifference, obtuseness and inaccessible jargon. When I struggled to my feet, eager to fight off the malignancy, I was repeatedly struck down by the bureaucratic equivalent of MRSA - the foregone conclusions of an overloaded, biased system. Just when I dared to hope that physically my health was improving (I could overcome recurrent migraines with strong painkillers), I realised that I was clinically depressed, having been in denial. Confiding this to my GP, let alone my family, friends and colleagues, was like saying I had soiled my pants, but the stress by then had become too much for me to ignore. Much has been written about stress and its effects. Stress overload can hit when too much is going on in your life and you feel dangerously out of control, and unable to get out of a desperate situation. Financial problems, especially tax credit debts which you never signed up for, and worries about the future can make life, previously enjoyed, a bleak encumbrance. It 's possible to tell yourself that all will be okay, and that it 's just a matter of getting yourself through a difficult time, with a little help from your friends and family, and this can be all you need. But when things get really bad, as they did with me, it seems as though nothing you can do will ever change your hopeless situation. I believe psychologists call this 'learned helplessness '. In this state you can become like the frog who (they say) sits passively in a shallow pan of water from which it could easily jump, if it chose to, whilst it is cool, or tepid, or starting to get uncomfortably hot, but it doesn 't, and is cruelly boiled to death. Stress, it seems, can paralyse you into a dangerous inaction. Generally it 's said that a little bit of stress is no bad thing, keeping us alert and mobilised to do the things we need to do to survive in an often-hostile world (whether it 's jumping out of pans or writing to the Ombudsman). The 'fight or flight ' reflexes of animals keep them alive. But too much stress can lead to headaches, migraine, depression, stomach upsets, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, panic attacks, asthma, anxiety, stress disorders and high blood pressure, among other things. Unchecked, it can cause strokes, heart disease and cancer. I knew I was over-stressed when I was either chronically-fatigued or hyperactive, got angry with myself and others, became overly self-critical, and burst into hysterical laughter when my soup spilled everywhere. I noticed I 'd become cynical, irritable and negative. Everything got on top of me, at work I felt constantly under siege. My emotions surfaced at any and every slight opportunity. I felt anxious or depressed most of the time, and doubted my own sanity. Stress may be the body 's 'normal psychological response to a hostile situation ' (www.stressfocus.com find out if you are stressed), but it can get out of hand, plunging your life 'from good to bad, worse to worst '. As a survivor, NOT an expert, I can only regurgitate others ' suggestions which have worked for me:
A healthy antidote to feeling powerless is 'converting stress into a positive force ' (www.bbc.co.uk 'responding to stress '), which for me meant continuing to challenge the TCO's overpayment recovery decision and to stand up for my rights by complaining about their malpractice. It has also been empowering to join the 'Tax Credit Casualties ' movement and campaign for an amnesty for non-fault overpayments with friends who have had similar experiences, and I 'd strongly advocate this to anyone who currently identifies with our poor frog. And unlike 'happy pills ' with their innumerable side-effects, protesting doesn 't ruin your love life. After all, haven 't the TCO taken enough away from us now? It was hard for me to acknowledge recently that I 'd become so stressed, anxious and depressed that I needed to talk to my GP. Robust mental health is valued and respected by society whilst fragility, vulnerability and distress are scorned. It 's almost better to be 'bad ' than 'mad '. I was surprised to find that the Department of Work and Pensions cite 'severe distress which has significantly impacted on a customer 's physical or mental health ' as something which apparently can be taken into account when deciding whether a compensatory payment can be made to someone who has suffered 'Departmental maladministration ' (we all know a few of those, don 't we!) Provided the 'customer ' is able to 'provide objective evidence of the impact of the error on their physical and/or mental health ', it seems possible to claim financial redress. Recognised evidence can, it seems, be 'a report from a GP. or evidence from an employer that the customer has been unable to work as a direct result of health problems arising from an error '. Although I have so far read nothing to suggest that awarding a compensatory payment necessarily goes hand-in-hand with winning your case against overpayment recovery, it seems to me that receiving a payment can only reduce financial hardship, whatever the overpayment appeal outcome. Successfully claiming compensation should also send clear signals to policy-makers that the system is organisationally abusive and damaging to people 's health, hopefully enabling the hacksaw to be hung up permanently in the tool-shed, and more frogs to jump out of the pan (with apologies for mixing my metaphors!) Seeing the guidance, I asked my GP. recently if, as well as treating my symptoms, he might consider supporting my claim that my migraines, anxiety and depression arose through the Tax Credit generated stress, and confirm this in a report? He seemed reasonably willing to do this at some point in the future, if somewhat less keen to backdate. He advised me against getting a report written immediately (as he only had my own word that my symptoms were well-established and coincided with my receiving threatening 'pay up now ' notices from our friends at the TCO). He advised waiting for a while to see how my newly-diagnosed condition progressed, and currently this is where I am at (although I found my first tablet made me so jittery that I 've abandoned them). The decision whether to see a GP. as soon as possible, or when driven beyond endurance is a difficult call. Going as soon as you become aware of a problem takes courage, and can surrender you to taking medication when you might otherwise have done without it. I 'm not sure anti-depressant medication is the answer for everyone, as it hasn 't been for me. Whether it 's better to see your doctor as soon as you can and have every consultation recorded (useful if you later decide to claim compensation for trauma and distress), or to hold off for a while, forgo the 'happy pills ' and find your own solutions is for you to decide. It may well be that you can find another person (such as your boss) willing to confirm that your health has suffered, and still have enough evidence for a compensation claim. The other side of the health coin is that the TCO also has some discretion (albeit, if Dawn Primarolo is to be believed, rarely if ever used) to write off an overpayment, or some of it, on the grounds of hardship. A really useful website is www.neilbateman.co.uk , which has templates for welfare rights letters which can be adapted to suit your circumstances. Neil Bateman 's 'Tax Credit overpayment waiver request ' lists a number of prompts to which you add specific details, e.g. 'recovery could affect my welfare or that of a family member '. Any evidence of psychological distress and physical symptoms linked to this could be set down, using this form, and perhaps influence the final outcome. I hope this has been helpful to others in my situation. I would strongly recommend, if your health allows, getting together with other 'casualties ' and getting involved in collective action for a full amnesty. After all, the 'sticking plaster ' approach to the gaping wounds left by the slash- 'em and hack- 'em tax credit heavy mob is not going to help anyone recover and reclaim their lives.
A.M.W. |
Please note that we are not tax professionals and are working on a voluntary basis, unpaid, in our ‘free time’. Between us, we have a lot of experience and knowledge in this area, gained over the last few years of supporting victims and helping them fight for justice and their rights. But legislation, operating practice and individual cases change all the time. While we aim to be professional and accurate at all times, please understand the circumstances we are working under, and accept our support, guidance and information in the sprit it is offered; goodwill and camaraderie.
|
