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The Research Library 27 August 2008 We've added a new page to the website today. The Research Library brings together all the available facts, figures and reports about Tax Credits. There is a mass of information there - but if you know of, or find, anything that you think should be included, please e-mail the webmaster. Be The Solution 15 August 2008 The old saying "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem ..." is known by many people. There is a more direct quote, by Anthony d'Angelo, that effectively says the same thing; "Realise that if you have time to whine and complain about something, then you have the time to do something about it". Why are these quotes on the website? Well, they're here to appeal to everyone that visits and uses this site. For a long time now, the campaigning and letter writing has been done by a relatively small 'core' of visitors - with everyone else either thinking that 'someone else will do it', or just not bothering. Here's an example for you: since the last 'Letter of the Week' was available on the website, there have been 3,565 different and unique visitors to the site. The 'Dispute Pack' has been downloaded 757 times in that period. The last 'Letter of the Week' was downloaded just 71 times in the same period - and that doesn't mean that it was sent each time! We need you to do some things, with us, that will ultimately help you and everyone else! This is what we want, and expect, from everyone who uses this site:
You only have to do a little bit, often. That's all ..... just a bit, here and there. Then we can move this mountain, a shovelful at a time! Would you like to begin by sending our new 'Letter of the Week' to your MP. Let's get this system changed!! Shop The COP26 Cheats! 11 August 2008 Have you been affected by HMRC not following their own Code of Practice 26? Maybe you've been 'fast-tracked' to court while you are still in Dispute. Or maybe HMRC haven't met their responsibilities correctly, but you're still being forced into repaying an overpayment? Have they taken any hardship into account? Special or tragic family circumstances been ignored? Whatever it is, we would like to hear from you! Please e-mail your story to COP26@TaxCC.org , as soon as you can! Thank you - and as always, we will keep your identity secret if you want us to. Totally Out of Control 8 August 2008 We have been informed that HMRC Debt Recovery teams have been instructed to recover all outstanding overpayments, regardless of any disputes. This is in direct contravention of COP 26, which states:
Pretty bad, eh? Well, it gets worse yet! Despite the Tax Credit Office statements that legal action is only used as a last resort, overpayment victims are being 'fast tracked' to court by Debt Recovery departments - so quickly, in fact, that the TCO Dispute Team doesn't even have time to acknowledge that a dispute is in progress! So what about the dispute? Well, overpayment victims are being told that they should try to explain to the Judge - which you'll see, if you read A Cautionary Tale, isn't exactly good advice! Could it get even worse? You bet it can!! An HMRC insider has informed us that there is a gaping hole in the Tax Credit computer system which prevents different departments working with each other. So, Debt Recovery takes action against overpayment victims without even having access to their records - and without any instructions to prosecute being given by the Tax Credit Office. This 'lack of an integrated system' is so bad that, even when the Tax Credit Office and Dispute Team admit the Debt Recovery department is in the wrong, they don't know how to stop them taking action!! You couldn't make it up! We will probably get the official line that 'this doesn't happen'. Well, it does and it is - right now!! The fact of the matter is that someone is responsible for the Tax Credit operation. It may well be that they just aren't aware of what is really going on within their organisation. Then again, maybe they do know, and this is all happening with their blessing. It makes no difference - the end result should be the same. If they aren't aware, they should resign because they simply haven't got a grip on things. If they do know what is going on, it proves that we, and ministers, are being lied to - and they should resign anyway. The question is, who is actually responsible for this mess? It's no good trying to make a scapegoat of some junior official this time! Richard Summersgill, maybe? Alistair Darling? What about Gordon Brown? Somebody, somewhere, has to be accountable - the system is totally out of control. Or do all those bonuses get given out just for turning up? Why We SHOULD Talk To The Media! 2 August 2008 By Ali Myers-Ward HMRC like to quote 'claimant error & fraud' figures. Well, in my books deceiving the public about the cause of overpayments and cultivating the myth that overpayments are commonly down to the claimant and not the system is the biggest fraud going at the moment. Blaming victims is dishonest and deceitful! We all need to be aware that the tables are starting to turn. Tax Credit Casualties - people overpaid through no fault of their own, but because they were duped by the system and the information they gave was not properly acted on - aren't powerless any more. We have been treated so badly and hurt so deeply that there can be NO EXCUSE. Patterns aren't so much emerging as smacking us in the face. HMRC is getting it wrong again and again and again. Just as a thief cannot deny his crime with his hands in the till, HMRC can't say the overpayments we are receiving are in any way our fault, because everything we do and everything they do leaves a trace. EVERYTHING is in our SARN data - or certainly should be. And if we have a call recorded in which an HMRC official swears our award is correct, or if we have a letter saying we owe nothing, then HMRC have no right to go back on their word, and send repayment demands or clipboarded officials to our doors. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT! Everyone, please know that we have enough evidence and horror stories, even at this stage, to provide ALL THE AMMUNITION that NEWSPAPERS, POLITICIANS OR LAWYERS COULD EVER WISH FOR to prove this system highly abusive, dangerous and inept. The whole story is here, ready to break in full. When it does, others will join in. Insiders are coming forward, too, in dribs and drabs saying implicitly or explicitly that they hate the work they do and that they don't want to harm the innocent public. Debt recovery officials, who were quite happy chasing rich swindlers for unpaid tax, balk at the idea of making grown men cry, disturbing families in their own homes, and intruding into the lives of ordinary people. We are sitting on a tinderbox of information here! So here's the bottom line. EVERY TIME HMRC abuses their power against a single one of us, WE HAVE TO EXPOSE IT! If it has happened to you, you can bet your entire overpayment that it has happened to someone else. Abusers of power are exactly like playground bullies. They are destined to come off worse, because they are acting against the usual human drive to treat others properly, and they have something they are frightened of losing, whether it is a false reputation for being in the right, or the power they are wielding. The moment their victims fight back, and bring reinforcements, they will realise their advantage is gone. The only power we have is that of collective action and shocking publicity. Publicity can depose governments and get almost any outrage corrected. Every single one of us, no matter what HMRC grinds us down into believing, is a valuable person with as much right as anyone else to be treated reasonably and fairly. Would we accept from HMRC what we accept, if they were the medical profession, for example? I think not! We would all be screaming from the rooftops and insisting they met their Duty of Care towards us. The onus would then be on the service to meet our needs, not on us to show why we shouldn't be punished for their failings. It's time for HMRC to belong to the real world and not have special status or impunity from the consequences of their misdeeds. Why shouldn't they be accountable to those they serve? If you have been treated unfairly by HMRC, going to the media is one means in your power to actively do something about it. Being in debt to HMRC is so common now that it isn't even a stigma any more! HMRC is virtually getting away with murder. I stand by my statement that the tax credit system is killing people off. We have heard that people have died, have attempted suicide, have become seriously ill, and have had to give up work. People have lost their homes, and had charges put on their properties. People have been lied to, and told they could not appeal, so they have taken out loans they cannot afford to repay for 'debts' they never incurred. People have been taken to court and told they cannot defend themselves - although even a murderer has this right. People who have been forced through the courts and denied a fair trial are now looking over their shoulders to see if the bailiffs are coming. People have been told one minute they owe nothing, and the next a suited man with clipboard appears on their doorstep to tell them they owe thousands of pounds. What the hell is going on? Is this fair? We expect to make sacrifices for the people we care about, but we don't expect our sufferings to be ignored just so that those in power can keep their power. Let the truth be told. Lies and cover-ups won't do. Let's make sure the truth is told. If you have been mistreated, tell your story! Tell the media. Tell your MP. Tell Brown. Now is the Time! 1 August 2008 The Government view Tax Credits as the Labour Party's 'best achievement'. We take issue with that view, because we challenge the 'genius' of changing benefits into credits in order to reassure voters that this is 'morally justified' money for those who deserve it - namely, children and those in work. Fine in principle, but we are now stuck with tax law, not benefit law. Benefits which are overpaid by the DWP's own errors and spent in good faith are generally unrecoverable, whilst overpayments caused purely and exclusively by HMRC's own 'dreadful bungling' remain as recoverable as unpaid income tax. This is why people are continually ringing our leader, Paula Dean, threatening suicide and at their wits' end - because as far as HMRC is concerned, it is us who are responsible for spotting and correcting HMRC errors, not them - and it is us who must repay money taken in good faith, even if we lose our homes, cannot feed our children, get into debt, end up servicing loans or are ultimately forced into bankruptcy. We are still patiently waiting for those 'bad debts due to the failure of the computers in the early days' to be written off - even though HMRC has already received compensation from the computer firms involved! Significant improvements to the system that were expected in 2005 have still not arrived three years later. The Tax Credit system is still a mess to those who have received overpayment demands through no fault of their own. Yet, those who have never had need of Tax Credits climb to the top of their Ivory Towers and scream for we 'benefit claiming scum' to repay every penny, because it is taxpayers money! They seem unable to recognise the fact that it is HMRC and the Government that are responsible - and HMRC cleverly build on this by constantly grouping together 'claimant fraud and error', whilst being totally unable, or unwilling, to state exactly how much of the 'error' is their own. Very convenient. Yet, nobody seems to want to take hold of the Tax Credit farce and refuse to let go. Why not? Too much of a minefield, maybe? Or is it because claimants are often publicly stereotyped to be idle, unworthy, fraudulent lowlifes who waste taxpayers money and have no right to complain? Fraud and error together, remember, and the errors are always the claimants! Even though individual MPs recognise the problems, no political party as a whole will commit to resolving them. Opposition Parties avoid stating clear intentions, making the odd noise from the sidelines when it suits. The ruling party refuse to even acknowledge that there are any major problems, despite the fact that they must know about them in great detail. The alternative, that they don't know what is going on, is too frightening to even contemplate! So it seems that the Labour Party simply doesn't want to be re-elected. It won't own up to its mistakes. The question is, just how badly do Labour want to woo the electorate again and rebuild their shattered image of being the party of social justice? Ex-lifelong Labour voters are torn between a desire to see them utterly annihilated in the next election - as their just deserts for abandoning Tax Credit overpayment victims - and the wish for them to have a miraculous enlightenment and finally realise how badly they have hurt and harmed those ordinary families that they seem to believe they are helping. With a General Election somewhere on the horizon, the Opposition Parties should realise that there are potentially millions of votes to be had from overpayment victims, and clearly state their intentions regarding Tax Credit overpayments. Yesterdays Financial Times article 'How Tax Credits Hit The Rocks', by Sue Cameron, states that many in Westminster now believe that Tax Credits are for the chop! Tax Credit Casualties have had coverage in many local papers and most of the nationals over the years - with the recent articles in the Sunday Times being the boldest and most accurate so far. But, no newspaper has yet carried out a sustained campaign against Tax Credit overpayments or the Tax Credit system. It's not because we are short of material - Paula is now in contact with about 2000 Casualties. Whatever 'angle' a newspaper could want, we can supply. Data requests which are withheld? We have that. Tales of harrowing HMRC incompetence and victims left in despair? We have that - although many would welcome the opportunity not to have their identities published, because they don't want to have the media's spotlight on their devastated lives. People given a 'fair trial' in court? We have many people for whom court was not, as it is reported to be, a last resort - and for some, the phrase 'fair trial' would result in hysterical laughter, ending in tears of devastation. Foolish mistakes? We have plenty of evidence of that. People's salaries zeroed - we have that. People assured repeatedly that their tax credits were right and that they could spend the money safely, only to be told it had to be paid back with menaces. We have that. Families held responsible for thousands of pounds of Tax Credit they never received. We have that. You name it, we can give you evidence of it ! Sue Cameron's FT article stated : "Now a feisty pressure group called Tax Credit Casualties, representing more than 1,000 families, is demanding an amnesty on all HMRC overpayments. Any precedent for such a thing? Just as tax credits were being launched here, Australia declared an amnesty on the overpayment of welfare benefits. Why? Anger at bullying, incompetent authorities – and an election coming up. Just like here." Just like here ..... !! Like never before, now is the time to write to your MP. Like never before, now is the time to write to the local or national press. Like never before, now is the time to spread the word, so that more and more people can join in and do all of these things ..... let's create a tidal wave of damnation for this vile 'benefit' system that ruins lives and destroys families. Now is the time for Tax Credit Casualties to campaign ceaselessly - thousands of voices, being heard as one! Until we win! And who are Tax Credit Casualties? ..... Why, you are of course! |
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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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