How to Write a Case History
and
Translate Your SAR Data

This is not going to be the easiest task, but a few hours work and the steps suggested below should cover it. I find this the easiest and most convenient method to work with for several reasons:

• It sets the events out in time order and helps demonstrate the confusion and complexity of most awards.
• It saves having to duplicate information in continuing letters.
• It’s a practical and speedy way to apprise others (e.g. MPs) of your case details.
• It can be updated as events and dispute stages unfold.

Here is a sample Case History, so you know the type of thing you're trying to achieve. Note that it ends with an overview and conclusion of the case and your experiences. This should include a statement something like; “I reported changes / attempted to correct errors and because of this believed the payments / award was correct, therefore it is unreasonable to recover the overpayment as I have already spent the money in good faith.”

What SAR Data Should You Have?

When you receive your data (from your SAR in Dispute Step 1b) it will probably be a bundle of (around 200 to 300) A4 photocopies that look repeated and gibberish:

• Typically half of these pages are plain text printouts containing claimant personal data, i.e. names, ages, family, N.I. numbers etc. Usually I find these bits pretty useless.
• ‘Screen captures’ (they look like a photo of a computer screen) will hold the most detail
• There should also be copies of any letters sent or received about your award / dispute.
• Copies of any forms sent (but usually not the initial claim forms and awards notices, unfortunately) such as Income Declarations and RRR forms.
• An abbreviations key so that you can translate some of the jargon on the data. These are rarely sent out, so if you don’t get one you can download our Abbreviation Key.
• A disc containing copies of any recorded phonecalls you made to HMRC re your Tax Credits award and a list of information about the calls, such as dates, times and notes. They have only recently promised to record most calls, and have ‘lost’ quite a few million too due to ‘technical error’, so they may not have copies of any calls you made (they swear this isn’t a fix, honest) or they may have just decided to not send them if they do have them. Send our "Missing Data Complaint" template letter to demand calls if they are not supplied.

To ‘translate’ the data for dispute purposes, I separate the documents out in the Tax Years and use this template: Case History Working Sheet. I find it helps me keep track of where they got what figure from, what the figures should be and what errors have been spotted.

Please note that I don’t actually focus on what payments where made when etc. (so please do some quick maths to check that they did pay you at least the figure they claim you are overpaid by).

At this point please remember that HMRC operate each year as a separate account and that their ‘year’ runs from the 6th of April one year to the 5th of April the following year. So you will check documents not just for the date they were produced / sent but also for the date / tax year they are relevant for.

Some of the Most Common Causes of Overpayments

Remember some of the most common causes of overpayments:

• Zeroing of income (a fault in their computers).
• Relationships ending / starting and births and deaths cause entitlement to vary.
• Entitlement being ‘annulled’, (cancelled), allegedly because of late income declarations, wrong relationship status etc.
• Design of system; it works on ‘old’ circumstance details, so even without errors overpayments happen. This still needs disputing as we were not warned of this gamble and spent the money in good faith.
• Varying income, jobs, working hours, childcare costs, etc. HMRC cannot calculate the effects quickly enough while continuing to pay the now wrong amount.
• HMRC failing to act on claimants notifying them of Changes of Circumstances (despite their constant carping on about claimants not advising these). This should be disputed because HMRC’s inaction and/or error mean they caused the overpayments to increase.

Draft Out The Main Points

Read through any dispute letters supplied to add to the case notes you roughed out. Just bullet point issues such as errors mentioned, i.e. income given as zero. Note anything you are unsure of or which you disagree with in the right tax year section of your notes.

Do the same with the forms and scan the plain text print outs for any non-existent people at your address, unusual number of children, etc. Note that any abbreviations here should be checked. ‘IS’ means that they have you down as receiving Income Support at this point – is this right?

The screen captures will provide probably the most information. Some of them will show payment schedules (dates & amounts of payments made); some will show ‘events’ (Changes of Circumstances, CoC’s) and income and circumstance changes reported. Some will show calculations for awards (these should show what income figure/ circumstances they based the award on, what they intended to pay, what they have paid, what they deem overpaid and what they have already ‘recovered’ or taken back).

Mark evidence documents with a code (e.g. A1/A2/A3 etc.) then add to notes /working sheet as reference / proof. Note that an error made in one year can ‘carry over’ to following years, i.e. if HMRC failed to update the system with a correct Change of Circumstance by the end of one year, they will probably have started the following year’s award using that wrong figure and pay out for the wrong amount until they catch up with themselves.

Look through all the data for evidence of:

• Notes and screen captures that confirm dates / ‘events’ / contact you say happened. There may be evidence that they did take that call from you, on the date you rang, that was not acted on or not calculated into your award early enough.
• How many times has each year been ‘Finalised’? (A minor detail but they shouldn’t re-finalise each year more than once without warning you; it’s illegal.)
• Do payments suddenly change? Like a recalculation has been done, even though they claim you didn’t notify them of any changes? Use these changes to prove you did. Why would the payments change otherwise?
• Did payments go down after you reported COC's (ones they acknowledge you did report) because if not, they have caused an overpayment to increase further by failing to act on information you declared.
• Where HMRC got the start figures for each new award from. It was probably the last figure they used from the previous year – regardless of anything you told them since.
• ‘Provisional payments’. When HMRC are running behind they pay out new claims on old data till they can catch up. Claimant didn’t supply the income information used for this purpose and should not be made responsible for it. It’s a huge risk to take and its HMRC taking that risk, not the claimant, who didn’t know this happened.
• Manual payments or lump sums bigger than usual – these are notorious for being wrong. Is there any indication of why this was paid – declared CoC’s acted on wrongly / income recorded wrongly etc?

Now Add The Detail

Now you have the data translated into date order and separate tax years, type it up, add context between relevant bits, i.e. “because I had reported the change (and it’s appeared on screen notes / documents) I believed the payments to be correct”; or “I did not receive an award notice for this period”; or “the error continued” etc.

Don't Forget To Add Health Problems

If you have experienced health problems during the time the overpayment occurred, either your own health or a family member’s that affected you, do please mention that in your case history. Tragedy, trauma, stress, hospital visits, can all impact on what expectations can be made of you during that period. Mental health is a common issue and one that people don’t raise, despite it having massive affects on how they can cope. A letter from your doctor would be very useful if your doctor was aware that you were experiencing these problems; either one that just states your diagnoses / symptoms or if possible (if you doctor is willing to be extra helpful) one that details the effects the illness had on you and what affects the continuing overpayment dispute is likely to have on you.

Sum It All Up

Then sum up. When summing up your Case History / dispute / letter, if appropriate:

• Request a Notional Entitlement assessment is done to reduce bill. Use this if whole or part of a year’s claim has been disallowed / annulled / cancelled due to wrong number of adults on the award.
• Demand provisional payments are disclosed and written off as based on information you did not supply for that purpose.
• Complain that payments should have been reduced in year to reduce overpayment.
• Don’t say ‘I didn’t see forms before my wife / ex sent them in’ etc. Your name is on the award so it means they deem you had a responsibility to check it.
• Tell HMRC they have instructions to be more lenient in disputes for the first two years of the system (03/04 & 04/05) due to the errors and complexity of the initial system.
• Point out that because you are disputing the overpayment they should not attempt to recover it until the dispute is complete.
• Make sure to stress that this is not only a complaint, but a dispute too.

Use Your Case History as a Dispute Letter

Your case history can then be used as a dispute letter. Just include a quick covering letter, and carbon copy several people in at once (MP, Adjudicator etc.). If you want, you can use our sample MP cover letter, or sample Adjudicator cover letter.