Tax Credit Scandal

Tax Office Under Fire By MPs Over Blunders

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 09:28:00 +0000

Tax Office Under Fire By MPs Over Blunders

Ed says, what the Tax Office never make mistakes, do they? It's always the users isn't it?

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is accused by the Treasury Select Committee of "endemic delays".

People could lose all respect for the tax system because of "unacceptable" flaws in basic services, according to a damning report by MPs.

The committee said: "HMRC collects revenue for the Government of more than 100 times the amount it costs to run.

Political Scandal UK. How much More TAX do we have to give to the Government

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:03:00 +0000

Political Scandal UK. How much More TAX do we have to give to the Government

Are your TAXES being wasted? UK Government Waste Billions of Pounds

http://whistletalker.livejournal.com/

Includes: Your Children go hungry while MP's get free food!!!

•1,036,000 claims were overpaid by a total of £917,000,000

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:11:00 +0000

1,036,000 claims were overpaid by a total of £917,000,000

Are HMRC Try To Bury New Overpayment Figures

HMRC have published Tax Credit overpayment figures for 2008-09 today, trying to slip them out under the cover of their latest data loss scandal.

Yes folks, HMRC would prefer to admit sending out other peoples data to 50,000 Tax Credit claimants rather than be up-front about the latest overpayment statistics. We will be writing to the Information Commissioner about this latest data loss, but for now let’s concentrate on the overpayment figures …

Here’s a summary of the Tax Credit overpayment figures for 2008-2009 :

There were a total of 6,996,000 claims for Tax Credits
1,036,000 claims were overpaid by a total of £917,000,000
This means that 14.81% of all Tax Credit claims were overpaid
842,000 claims were overpaid less than £500
Claims overpaid between £500 and £1,000 were 212,000
147,000 claims overpaid £1,000 – £2,000
85,000 very unhappy claimants will be repaying between £2,000 and £5,000
Some 20,000 claimants have overpayments of greater than £5,000

Once again, we are reminded of the sheer number of lives that are being ruined by Tax Credit overpayments.

Remember how you felt until you found Tax Credit Casualties? Please spread the word and do whatever you can to let people know that they can get help on our website. Let’s help as many victims as we can!

By the The Tax Credit Casualties An organisation run by and for victims of tax credit overpayments and subsequent unfair recovery. We offer support to people receiving overpayment demands, to enable them to know their rights and dispute automatic recovery. We also campaign and lobby cross-party MPs to support a full write-off of all non-fraudulent overpayments. We are currently setting up an account to fundraise towards our work. We are following up the possibility of pro bono legal representation with a class action, and currently have a high profile lawyer interested in supporting us.

The Tax Credit Casualties Letter To David Cameron

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Tax Credit Casualties Letter To David Cameron

Tax Credit Casualties are in the process of writing to many MPs in our new Government. We thought you’d like to see the letter that David Cameron has received from us this morning, so we’ve published it below.

It’s a long letter, but worth reading because we believe that it says just about everything that can be said about Tax Credit overpayments and how unjust the system truly is. Why not send a copy to your own MP, asking them to do their best to make sure that the Government acts on what we have written?

Read the full letter here

Tax Credit Casualties Support with help and advice

TaxPayers’ Alliance represent taxpayers’ interests

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Mon, 03 May 2010 12:11:00 +0000

TaxPayers’ Alliance will hold any Government to account and represent taxpayers’ interests. We will keep fighting for lower taxes and better value in public services.

Britain’s independent grassroots campaign for better services & lower taxes

Whistletalker Political Scandal Blog.

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:32:00 +0000

Whistletalker Political Scandal Blog.

Discover what the Government are really up-to.

Liberal Democrats. Income Tax and Tax Credits

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:39:00 +0000

Liberal Democrats Fair taxes: We will make the first £10,000 you earn tax-free.

Question to Nick Emmerson Liberal Democrats Parliamentary Candidate for Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland

People earning £10,000 or less will not pay any income tax and those on the
basic rate of tax will have a tax cut of £700 per year. We will pay for it by
making sure the rich pay their fair share by introducing a mansion tax on
the value of homes over £2m, by taxing income and capital gains at the
same rate, and switching tax from income to pollution.

BUT THIS WILL TAKE A LOT OF LOWER PAID OFF TAX-CREDITS WHICH WILL RESULT IN LESS INCOME OVER-ALL

What about this?--

Answer from Nick Emmerson Liberal Democrats Parliamentary Candidate for Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland

We will not abolish tax credits but will taper them so that lower income families still get them. Middle income families may not but they will benefit from the new tax free income tax element.

Thank you again for writing to me.

Kind regards,

Nick Emmerson Liberal Democrats Parliamentary Candidate for Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland

http://www.nickemmerson.org.uk

HAVE YOU CLAIMED TAX CREDITS?

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:59:00 +0000

HAVE YOU CLAIMED TAX CREDITS?

Discover:-

Why there are delays
If you have claimed but not yet been paid
If you are awaiting a payment but are in hardship
How to claim an emergency payment
WHAT DO THE RULES SAY?
How are tax credits paid?
When must the Inland Revenue pay tax credits
How does late payment of tax credits affect income support?
How does late payment of tax credits affect housing benefit?

Why there are delays

HMRC Website Requires Invalid Details To Be Entered

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:40:00 +0000

HMRC Website Requires Invalid Details To Be Entered

I am so annoyed this morning as I've just had the misfortune to use the HMRC website (note it's http://www.hmrc.gov.uk, as it won't work if you type http://hmrc.gov.uk but that's a story for another day). After signing up for the online VAT service which, as it seems, I am legally obliged to do I was taken to the following web form which asks me to set up a series of 'shared secrets', so-called security questions that in the future may be used to verify my identity. The form looks easy enough, but the character limits on the left may give you a glimpse of things to come...
It's obvious (and important) to provide accurate, memorable answers - and boy did I try. The problem is that the HMRC website makes this near impossible, or in my case totally impossible. Here's why.

Note that I am using fictitious answers in the screenshot, but the amount of words and amount of letters (and spaces) I am using are accurate and identical to my actual answers.

As you can see the questions are very straight forward: name of first school, name of last school, a memorable place, a memorable date and a memorable name. Easy, right? Wrong. I got 4 out of 5 answers 'wrong' and couldn't figure out a way to make this evil form to accept my answers - and remember these are *my* answers, so technically there is no wrong value, only wrong formats as it turns out.

The first problem is that this form will not accept any spaces in any of the fields. That's problematic because my first school's name was 'Willi Graf Grundschule' which was not only too long (max 15 chars are allowed) but also contained spaces, so even after shortening it to 'Willi Graf' it did not pass as valid.
My last school (Otto Hahn Gymnasium) fared no better, for the same reasons.

The memorable place was slightly different since it did not exceed 15 characters, but still contained a space. I shortened 'Burke Hall' to simply 'Burke' which again failed, this time because the minimum length required was six spaces. I started going slightly insane at this point but managed to enter a memorable date correctly - awesome.

The memorable name however was yet again too short - I usually use my mother's maiden name here which is 5 characters long. At this point I gave up and rang the HMRC helpline. What I was told there beggars belief.

the chap on the other end of the phone clearly has had many calls like this already as his first question was more of a statement: "It doesn't let you input spaces, right?". Yeah damn right! And it won't accept my answers either - and I know they are correct, only I *can* know!

His suggestion: "Just omit the spaces." My jaw dropped at this stage. I explained to him that if I omitted the spaces my answers would not be correct, and should someone in the future ask me for the nth letter of my last school I'd give the wrong answers because clearly I would not remember at that point that I was forced to leave out the flippin spaces! He simply replied that I could always 'ring back at that time and they'd verify my details over the phone'. Ugh. Then why go through the trouble with the online system in the first place!?

I also suggested for me to simply 'use another memorable place and name, ones that fit into the character limits'. Now I don't know about yourself, but I have not got a whole lot of places and names that are that memorable, especially not second choice ones of a certain character length which do not contain spaces (my place of birth was another one I tried, invalidated by its space...).

I told the guy that I build web apps for a living, and that this form was a usability nightmare. I told him that there was no technical reason to not allow spaces, or impose a 15 character length limit. I can sort of understand the minimum length, but still this is a security question with one pre-defined answer that can't be changed (my first and last school's name is just that, nothing I can do about it), it's not a password which requires different attributes.

It quickly became apparent that HMRC was not giving a toss about this issue, not even saw it as something that needs addressing. When I told the chap that had I designed this form it would not have these restrictions he educated me that actually it would do since HMRC would have told me to design it within those guidelines (no spaces, min and max length etc). Oh dear me.

The take-away from this? Clearly the UK Government is giving its IT contracts to the wrong people, and/or giving flawed guidelines when it comes to online forms. Usability is not their strong points, to put it mildly. What annoys me the most though is that I am forced both online and on the phone to enter wrong details into a web form, just in order to get it to validate. I don't find this acceptable. Normally - if this was any old e-commerce site - I'd just be on my way, never to return again. But as a business I *have* to use this service to submit my VAT returns. What should I do next? I've still not submitted the form, but will have to do soon. Do you think there's any chance of HMRC fixing it?

Please link and tweet about this issue if you agree with my points raised. Maybe if we scream loud enough those above will listen?

Comments....

>ed says now what happens if a mistake is made? Do you get classed as Fraud?

The Claim Game. MP's expenses unbelievable

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:59:00 +0000

The Claim Game Click here to play now

Can you remember what items these politicians claimed for?

Election 2010 Party Manifestos: Tax Credits

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:48:00 +0000

Election 2010 Party Manifestos: Tax Credits

At long last, the election has finally been called for 6th May. The big question now is: how are we going to vote?

There are lots of reasons why people make the choices they do when they vote. Some traditionally stick to one party, some look at specific issues, and some the bigger picture. What we do know is that ‘floating voters’ (the ones who don’t have a traditional party allegiance) are the voters who make a significant difference. Interestingly recent studies show that these ‘floating voters’ are more likely to be women then men.

So to try and help those of you who don’t yet know how to vote, but reckon Tax Credits is a big enough issue to sway your vote, (and let’s face it with an overpayment of nearly £4k I’m going to be swayed by the guy who says ‘we’ll write that off’!), TCC thought we would try to establish a clear picture from the main parties to inform you of their positions.

In July 2009, Graham wrote to the three main Party leaders, asking them to tell us what their election manifestos contained with regard to Tax Credits and Tax Credit overpayments. Here’s the letter we sent to each Party leader

Response:-

Read the Lib Dem Party response

Read the Conservative Party response

Read the Labour Party response

More...

Estimates of fraud and error across all benefits

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:42:00 +0000

Estimates of fraud and error across all benefits in 2008/09

For 2008/09, it is estimated that 2.2 per cent, or £3.0bn, of total benefit expenditure was overpaid due to fraud and error.

The estimate for the percentage overpaid in 2008/09 is higher than the preliminary estimate for 2008/09 published in May 2009. The estimated percentage of benefit expenditure overpaid has increased from 2.0% to 2.2% and in value terms from £2.7bn to £3.0bn.

For 2008/09, it is estimated that 0.9 per cent, or £1.2bn, of total benefit expenditure was underpaid due to fraud and error.

The estimates for the percentage and value of benefit expenditure underpaid in 2008/09 have remained at the same level as the preliminary estimate for 2008/09 published in May 2009.

~~~~
Ed. What they still place errors in with fraud. So if you or they make a mistake you are classed as Fraud

Life inside the beleaguered HMRC

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:30:00 +0000

Life inside the beleaguered HMRC

Morale within the department is poor, employees complain

Former employees of under-fire HM Revenue and Customs service have contacted the BBC

News website to describe life inside its offices.

The news that the details of 25 million recipients of Child Benefit payments have gone missing has shone a spotlight on HMRC.

The agency collects and administers direct and indirect taxes; and pays and administers Child Benefit, Child Trust Fund and Tax Credits. It is also responsible for environmental taxes, enforcing the National Minimum Wage and recovery of student loans.

Formed in 2005 following a merger between HM Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue, it has proved controversial since its inception.

But now it faces intense criticism after junior officials were blamed for sending computer discs with personal details of all UK families through the post - only for the discs to disappear.

MORE...

Ode To Tax Credits (III)

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:18:00 +0000

Ode To Tax Credits (III)

Also discover what the Government SAY* thay will do if elected.

* May be this is just more talk to try get votes.

Risk and Government: The Architectonics of Blame-avoidance

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:52:00 +0000

Risk and Government: The Architectonics of Blame-avoidance.

This may help explain why the Government are not willing to fix the issues with the Tax Credits System

MPs' expenses, (An error)

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:55:00 +0000

MPs' expenses, (An error)... Honestly

Opps, they made an honest mistake in filling in their claims...

Well so have a lot of people trying to get a decent income by having it topped up with Tax Credits.

Those making mistakes in Tax Credits are places in the SAME category of those committing FRAUD.

For M.P.’s the story appears different. They laugh all the way to the bank. Buying everything form light bulbs to large screen flat screen televisions while a lot of income earners paying taxes to get MP’s these goodies are having to payback Tax Credit

Expenses scandal: House of frauds - Times Online UK News; World News; Politics; Science; Environment ... could have quite the effect that this expenses scandal has ... home of Alan Duncan, a millionaire Tory MP who had claimed £7,000 expenses ... << (ed) More than most ever get a year in Tax Credit

http://www.bing.com/search?q=mp+expenses+how+much

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_en-GBGB355GB355&q=mp+expenses+how+much

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?&p=MPs%27+expense

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=hts&oq=&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_en-GBGB355GB355&q=MPs%27+expenses

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_en-GBGB355GB355&q=mp+expenses+scandal&meta=&aq=2&oq=MP+expenses

Tax code errors cost over £1,000 a year.

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:50:00 +0000

Tax code errors could cost a 'huge number of people' over £1,000 a year, financial group warns

Workers may have been sent the wrong tax codes following the introduction of a new computer system at HM Revenue & Customs, a tax group warned today.

The Chartered Institute of Taxation believes wrong information may have been sent out to 'huge numbers of people' and warned that unless it was corrected, it could cost them hundreds of pounds.

The group said many people with only one job were being sent two or more tax coding notices with different tax codes.

....

An HMRC spokesman said: 'The new IT system is improving the accuracy of the PAYE so that more people than ever before are correctly taxed.

'Anyone in this position should check their code using the guidance included with the code and on our website, www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax

Read more

Reform the Tax Credit system

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:08:00 +0000

Pocket Guide to Liberal Democrat Policies 2009, (Subject to possible change)

Reform the Tax Credit system – Low income families should be able to sleep easy at night knowing that the payment they receive is right and won’t be clawed back.

We will make payments fixed for 6 months (unless a family experiences a large and unexpected drop in income) so families are not constantly paying tax credits
back.

We will also reduce the number of people eligible for Tax Credits who are on higher incomes and use the resulting savings to increase education spending for the most deprived children.

Taxman ignored 44 million calls

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:18:00 +0000

Taxman ignored 44 million calls

HM Revenue and Customs failed to answer about 44 million calls last year, the Whitehall spending watchdog has disclosed.

The National Audit Office (NAO) described the performance of HMRC's 31 customer "contact centres" during the course of 2008-09 as "unacceptable".

Despite employing the equivalent of 10,500 full-time staff at the centres at a cost of £233 million, HMRC still failed to pick up 43% of the 103 million calls it received during the year.

During the busiest periods - such as the tax credit renewals peak in July - just one in three calls (33%) was actually answered.

Callers who did get through had to wait an average two minutes for a reply - or almost four minutes if they were ringing at peak times.

That contrasted with best practice in the private sector where the target is for 90% of all calls to be picked up within 10 seconds.

Although the latest figures for the first half of 2009-10 have shown some improvement by HMRC, the NAO said that more than one in four calls - 27% - were still not getting a reply.

In the private sector, the benchmark is that no more than 10% of calls should go unanswered.

Benefits Helpline

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Benefits Helpline.

Please note the editor does no know if any charges are expected for support using this service. Check for any charges first.

We can give totally impartial advice as The Benefits Helpline is not affiliated with any government department/services

All benefits problems solved with fast, accurate, simple, expert advice. Are you in a high end job? Found you are just too busy to realise that you are missing unclaimed benefits?

The Benefits Helpline can advise you on what benefits you can claim.

As the UK's dedicated benefits support service, the Benefits Helpline specialises in advising and assisting people who are classed as 'high earners'. The Benefits Helpline will help you unveil any unclaimed and unpaid benefits that are currently not known by you.

Get help with any benefit related query: -
How to claim benefits.
Information on benefits.
Entitle to benefits.
Benefits forms made simple.
Comprehensive benefit advice.
Benefits and tax credits.

The Benefits Helpline has been setup to deal with UK benefit queries.
Trained advisors are on hand to deal with anything from your general enquires and specialist problems, to emergencies.

The Benefits Helpline is tailored to support all benefit related enquiries. With trained benefits advisors on call, you will speak to a straightforward, articulate and friendly telephone support agent.

The trained benefits advisors are on hand to ensure that that your benefits problems will be dealt with absolute professionalism and efficiency.

There will be no jargon, just competent, accurate, straight forward advice tailored to fit your needs.

As the UK's dedicated benefit support service, you are safe in the knowledge that the Benefits Helpline offers you a comprehensive and accurate solution, for all of your benefits related enquiries.

Benefits Helpline

Childcare Warning to Parents'.

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:17:00 +0000

Childcare Warning to Parents'.

Under recent changes to the law in England some providers of childcare who were approved for tax credits under the old rules must now meet new registration requirements.

Parents should now check whether their providers are still registered under the new rules. If they continue to claim tax credits on childcare costs paid to unregistered providers, they could be left with large overpayments and possibly even penalties.

Low Income Tax reform Group.

Tax Credits Disputes - A Ray of Hope

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:15:00 +0000

Tax credits disputes - a ray of hope (25-09-2009)

Over the last few years, unacceptable delays, poorly written responses, wrong explanations and sometimes no reply at all have been common experiences for users of the tax credit dispute process.

We have been at the forefront of calling for change. We therefore welcome HMRC’s decision to set up a new team to deal with correspondence from organisations offering free advice to claimants.

Low Incomes Tax Reform Group.

Help For Working Tax Credit Claimants in the Recession

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:13:00 +0000

Help for working tax credit claimants in the recession (16-09-2009)

When people lose their jobs or have their hours reduced there are tax credit rules which mean that valuable tax credit payments are not withdrawn immediately.

From August this year these rules have been amended to make them apply to more people.

Low Incomes Tax reform Group.

'Help With Tax Credit Overpayments

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:10:00 +0000

Help with tax credit overpayments(18-09-2009)

A new guide written for the man or woman in the street aimed at enabling them to challenge tax credit overpayments is published today.

LITRG, (Low Incomes Tax Refom Group), has written the guide to help claimants through the complexities of fighting a tax credits overpayment decision and to enable them to decide how to fight and how to find extra help.

Call for Tax Credit overpayments over 4 years old to be written-off

noreply@blogger.com (TafficProducer) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Citizens Advice are starting a national campaign for all Tax Credit overpayments over 4 years old to be written-off. Today, Tax Credit Casualties have issued the Media Release shown below.

What can you do to help? Just forward this media release to your local newspapers - these are the papers that we don't have on our list. The more publicity we can generate, the more chance we have of succeeding. This is YOUR campaign, and it's important that everyone join in if we are going to be successful.

Please also send a copy to your MP - we aren't allowed to 'spam' them, but you, as their constituents, can make them aware of things! Let's - every one of us - do what we can to get this vile system changed!Thanks.Tax Credit Casualties.

Tax Credit Casualties Support Citizens Advice

Tax Credit Debt Write-Off' Campaign Sign Here, Sign Now!!!

The latest Tax Credit statistics, quietly released by HMRC, show a shock increase of overpayment bills for poverty stricken families. The official figures for 2007/08 show that over £940 million will be clawed back from almost 1.34 million of the UK's poorest families, plunging them even deeper below the poverty line.

One in five Tax Credit claims are now overpaid each year, leaving struggling families in dispair about how they are going to survive when HMRC claw back the money. Once again, a measure that was supposed to bring millions of children out of poverty is having exactly the opposite effect, as the very poorest families struggle to repay their Government imposed debt.

Citizens Advice is calling for old tax credit debts, dating back more than four years, to be written-off. It is taking part in a national campaign to ask the Government to wipe the slate clean, reduce hardship for families on low incomes and restore confidence in the system.

The award-winning voluntary organization Tax Credit Casualties (TCC) have campaigned for an overpayment amnesty since 2005, and welcomes the call by Citizens Advice for all tax credit overpayment bills, served to honest claimants during 2003-05, to be written-off.

Despite the good intentions behind the Tax Credit system, TCC are deeply concerned about the hardship and distress caused by the recovery of Tax Credits year on year since the scheme began in 2003, with claimant poverty compounded by the recession. Non-fraudulent overpayments must be written off.

It damages public confidence in our leaders when MPs defend excessive expenses, “home-flips” and mortgage irregularities as 'accidents' whilst ordinary, hardworking citizens suffer grave injustices in the “guilty until proven innocent” culture the Treasury adopts towards overpayment victims. Without an Amnesty, costly overpayment disputes will continue to swamp HM Revenue and Customs indefinitely. Enforced recovery is neither just nor economical.

The public has lost confidence in tax credits, and trust must be restored. Recent reports suggest that a massive £4.24 billion available to Tax Credit claimants is not collected each year – more than enough to fund a full write-off. Costs saved in pursuing the innocently indebted can be redirected to system overhaul. A reliable system will restore public confidence far better than costly campaigns to promote take-up.

HMRC has seen huge data losses, radical structural reorganization, and a huge backlog of unopened post and complaints. Chasing the poorest families to recover non-fraudulent overpayments only detracts from urgent work in creating a safer, fairer system.

Parliamentary Ombudsman Ann Abraham recommended a write-off all overpayments resulting from official errors, something the Government has continually ignored.

This call has been backed by the Child Poverty Action Group, Royal College of Nursing, Low Incomes Tax Reform Group and cross-party MPs. UNISON has supported Motion 100 urging a Government amnesty on the claw back of overpaid Tax Credits. The two-way link between poverty and mental health cannot be ignored, with poverty and mental distress bringing huge social and welfare costs.

Please support Citizens Advice and Tax Credit Casualties in this campaign for a write off of non-fradulent overpayments. The poorest families in the UK need this Amnesty.

Urgently.

********************* End of Media Release **************************