How to Write a Case History

Here, we'll show you how to 'translate' your SAR data from HMRC, and use it to write your case history. This is not going to be the easiest task, but a few hours and hopefully the steps suggested below should cover it.

Here is a sample Case History as the suggested format. This is the easiest and most convenient method to work with for several reasons:

• It sets the events out in time order and helps to 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 inform others (e.g. MP’s ) of your case details.
• It can be easily updated as events and dispute stages unfold.

Note that the case history ends with an overview and conclusion of the case and experiences. This should include a statement something like; “I reported changes and attempted to correct errors, and because of this believed the payments and award were 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, it will probably be a bundle of around 200 to 300 A4 photocopies that look mainly repeated and gibberish.

• Typically half of these pages are plain text print outs containing claimant personal data such as names, ages, family, N.I. numbers. Usually I find these bits pretty useless.
• ‘Screen captures’ (they look like a photocopy of a computer screen) will hold the most detail.
• There should also be copies of any letters sent or received about your award and dispute.
• Copies of any forms sent, such as Income Declarations and TC846 (RRR) forms. Unfortunately, application forms and awards notices aren't usually included, so you're not able to tell whether HMRC actually input the data from these forms correctly.
• An abbreviation key, so that you can translate some of the jargon on the data. It's actually quite rare to receive these, but if you didn't get one, we have an online Abbreviation Key here.
• A compact disc containing copies of any recorded phone calls you made to HMRC about your Tax Credits award. They have only recently promised to record most calls, and have lost quite a few million too! 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 even if they do have them.

If they delay in supplying your data, or no calls have been supplied, or there seems to be other information missing, you can complain to HMRC using this sample "Missing Data" complaint letter.

HMRC are notorious for missing out the one bit of data that would prove that you were right and they were wrong. So, if they don't respond or don't send the missing data after you've contacted them about it, complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) with the aim of forcing HMRC to supply it.

Some of the Most Common Causes of Overpayments

Be aware of some of the most common reasons for overpayments:

• Zeroing of income - usually caused by a fault in their computer system.
• Relationships ending or starting, causing entitlement to vary.
• Births or deaths, causing entitlement to change.
• Entitlement being ‘annulled’ (cancelled), allegedly because of late income declarations, wrong relationship status etc.
• Varying income, jobs, working hours, childcare costs etc. HMRC can not calculate the effects quickly enough, while continuing to pay the (now wrong) amount.
• The design of the Tax Credit 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.
• HMRC failing to act on claimants notifying Changes of Circumstances. These errors should be disputed because their inaction and / or error means they caused the overpayments to increase.

How to Begin Writing Your Case History

To begin to ‘translate’ the data for dispute purposes, separate the documents out into the Tax Years, and then use this Case History Working Sheet to make rough notes of what happened, when. It will help you keep track of where they got which figure from, what the figures should be and what errors have been spotted.

• Don’t focus on what payments were actually made when, but please do some quick maths to check that they did pay you at least the figure they claim you are overpaid by.
• Remember that HMRC operate each year as a separate account and that their ‘year’ runs from the 6 April one year to the 5 April the following year. So you will check documents not just for the date they were produced or sent but also for the date and tax year they are relevant for.

Fill in the Details

Once you have made rough notes using the Case History Working Sheet , you can find the details about your award.

• Read through any dispute letters supplied to add to the case notes you roughed out. Just bullet point issues such as errors, i.e. income given as zero (this is actually usually because of a fault in their computers, but they try and claim that claimants told them this income) . Note anything you are unsure of, or 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 probably provide the most information. Some of them will show payment schedules (dates and amounts of payments made), some will show ‘events’ (COC’s; income and circumstance changes reported) and some will show calculations for awards (these should show what income figure etc they based the award on, what they intended to pay, what they have paid, what they deem overpaid and what they have already ‘recovered’; taken back).
• 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 (COC, i.e. income) by the end of one year, they will probably have started the following years 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 maybe evidence that they did take that call from you on the date you that was not acted on or not calculated into your award early enough.
• 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.
• Did payments go down after you reported COC’s? (ones they acknowledge you did report)  because, if not, they have further caused an overpayment to increase.
• 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 were running behind they paid out new claims on old data till they caught up. Claimant didn’t supply the income information used for this purpose and should not be made responsible for it.
• Manual payments or lump sums bigger than usual – these are notorious for being wrong. Is there any indication of why this was paid – income recorded wrongly etc.?
• How many times has each year been ‘Finalized’? (a minor detail, but they shouldn’t re-finalised each year more than once without warning you - it's illegal).

Write Your Full Case History

Now you have all the data translated into date order and separate tax years. Type it up, add context between relevant bit’s, 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. etc. Once again, here is a Sample Case History to help you.

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

• Request that a 'Notional Entitlement' assessment is done to reduce the bill. Use this if whole or part of a years claim has been disallowed, annulled or cancelled due to wrong circumstance details for that period.
• Get provisional payments disclosed and written-off, as they were based on information you did not supply for that purpose.
• Complain that payments should have been reduced "in year" to reduce overpayments.
• Don’t say anything like ‘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 2 years of the system (2003/04 and 2004/05) 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.