PLEASE NOTE: Take independant legal advice before taking any actions.

PLEASE NOTE: Take independent legal advice before taking any actions. Some information may not be upto date.

The Basics: Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit

Basics: Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit were introduced in April to replace Working Families' Tax Credit which many families relied upon to make ends meet.

HM Revenue & Customs: Tax Credits The HM Revenue & Customs Tax Credit pages featuring information on the tax credits available to you.

This Blog Relates to the United Kingdom Tax Credits System.

Change The Tax Credits System so it helps Lower Income Earnings

Members of Parliament

Tax Credits are a Political Issue and at this time a General Election could be due soon. Therefore greater Pressure could be put on the Government to Change The Tax Credits System to something that helps Lower Income Earnings instead of punishing them!!

Contact your own Member of Parliament let them know that you have/are having problems

Alphabetical List of Members of Parliament

Please ONLY post United Kingdom Tax Credits issues.

Please ONLY post United Kingdom Tax Credits issues.

Tax Credit Casualties Main Site : A MUST VIEW!!! Check it our :)

Tax Credit Casualties Main Site A MUST VIEW!!! Check it Out!!! What to do, When to do it, and How to do it.


Piles of Money

Piles of Money
Biggest Tax Credits Pay out Ever, and on Time!!!

£53M BONUS FOR CIVIL SERVANTS IN TAX CREDIT FIASCO

£53M BONUS FOR CIVIL SERVANTS IN TAX CREDIT FIASCO

Not bad, pity they can not pay out Tax Credits.

Click Here for more information about how they got £53,000,000.00


Brown’s ‘incompetence’ over tax credits has cost the public £2bn

TAX CREDIT SYSTEM HAS LOST £1.74 BILLION

£6bn overpaid to tax credit claimants since 2003

HMRC slammed over tax credits bungle.

HMRC slammed over tax credits bungle.

Public Accounts Committee says £1.4bn is likely to be written off


Can I get legal aid?

Can I get legal aid?

Use the CLS Direct Legal Aid Calculator to see if you are eligible for legal aid.The CLS Direct Legal Aid Calculator allows you to find out if you could get legal aid (CLS-funded help) for a civil case.

You will be asked a series of questions about your legal problem and financial situation. For reasons of data protection, none of the information entered into the calculator is saved, so it is completely confidential and anonymous.

You can print out the results at the end for your own records.

Legal Beagles. Provide legal strategies for the self litigating consumer.

Legal Beagles. Provide legal strategies for the self litigating consumer.

With our experiences, knowledge and resources we will be at the forefront of the battles against unfair practices, whether they be from the banks (where our main battle is at the moment) or any other organisation that feels they can use unfair business practices to take money from our members.

Monday 19 October 2009

Benefits Helpline

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

Friday 16 October 2009

Childcare Warning to Parents'.

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

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

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

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.

Thursday 10 September 2009

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

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 **************************

Thursday 26 February 2009

Tell the Labour Party you support change. Vote now!!!

'Justice is an Amnesty' campaign right into the Labour Party parlour, via their 'LabourSpace' website.

What is LabourSpace? Full details can be found on their site, but in their own words:=

"Labourspace lets you quickly and easily set up a campaign and share your ideas with the Labourspace community. If you start a campaign which gains the most popular support your ideas will be bought to the attention of senior Labour politicians - your campaign could give you the opportunity to change the world!

You'll win if you have the idea with the highest net support (supporters - detractors).
All you need is to get the most support for your idea - it's all about people power really!"

No matter how you feel about the Government, this represents a fantastic opportunity to tell the Labour Party, as a whole, how we feel about Tax Credit overpayments. Not the Government itself, but the political party that funds their election campaigns and of which they are all members. So this is a whole new approach, and one with a tremendous amount of potential.

What do we need everyone to do? Easy. Click on the link to our LabourSpace campaign page, below, register on the site, and vote for our 'Justice is an Amnesty' campaign.
CLICK HERE: http://www.labourspace.com/view_campaign?CampaignId=125

(Look for the Tumbs Up at the very top right of the page and vote, you need to register first)

Then ask everyone you know to do the same, because this affects everyone who claims Tax Credits. If they haven't had an overpayment yet, it's only a matter of time.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

What Tax mistakes?

What Tax mistakes? Well here is a few!!! >>>>

£900m disappears in HMRC data transfer Monday 30 Apr 2007

That's £900,000,000 (opps, a slight hicup, no one will miss it!!!!)

HMRC system charges wrong income tax Friday 13 Jul 2007

HMRC disciplines 600 staff over unauthorised data access Friday 2 May 2008

HMRC delays rules changeover as systems testing continuesTuesday 18 Sep 2007

HMRC taking 'precautionary measures' after loss of 15,000 records Tuesday 6 Nov 2007

Tories claim HMRC kept bank data on lost discs to save money Thursday 22 Nov 2007

HMRC denies IT-related £2.8bn tax credit loss Tuesday 29 Jul 2008

HMRC errors hit 1 million people Monday 9 Jul 2007

HMRC loses laptop with taxpayer data Monday 8 Oct 2007

MPs slam tax credits systemThursday 10 May 2007

HMRC offers £20k reward for missing benefit discs

Data sharing onslaught threatened Friday 13 Jul 2007

Chancellor faces up to UK's worst-ever data breach Tuesday 20 Nov 2007

Capgemini pays for system downtime Wednesday 18 Apr 2007

Government defends tripling of HMRC's IT bill for Aspire Monday 29 Oct 2007

HMRC data disc loss 'entirely avoidable' Thursday 26 Jun 2008

Revenue IT chief appointed chief operating officer Wednesday 17 Oct 2007

HMRC extends Aspire outsourcing deal in bid to cut costs Wednesday 7 Nov 2007

Security experts lambast HMRC Wednesday 21 Nov 2007

UK data breach: stripping data 'would not have been costly' Thursday 6 Dec 2007

Information commissioner to take action on HMRC, MoD Thursday 26 Jun 2008

HMRC board gains former Tesco CIO Thursday 8 Jan 2009


£ MULTI-BILLIONS LOST

If the Tax Credits System never made mistakes why did the UK Government get money from EDS, the computer installers????


M.P. Need new HD flatscreen TV's in the second homes, so someone has to pay for this...

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much his Department has spent on (a) flat screen televisions, (b) DVD players and (c) stereo equipment in each of the last three years. [240386]
Huw Irranca-Davies:

The information is as follows:=

2008-0 9 Financial Year
(a) Flat screen televisions: £2,698.94
(b) DVD players: £509.96
(c) Stereo equipment: £0

2007-08 Financial Year
(a ) Flat screen televisions: £4,707.00
(b ) DVD players: £412.00
(c ) Stereo equipment: £12,572.00

2006-07 Financial Year
(a ) Flat screen televisions: £6,837.00
(b ) DVD players: £0
( c ) Stereo equipment: £0

We won't mention the cars, furniture, drinks, food, entertaining, trips out, and other Goodies they get.

And this is just one Department:::: So this is a lot of the Taxes Go!!!

Tax Credits - HMRC blame their mistakes on claimants

Tax Credits - HMRC blame their mistakes on claimants Immediate Release: 07.09.2006

HMRC blame tax credit claimants for mistakes made by the department. Further, it has emerged that tax credit claimants who have requested HMRC not to recover credit paid to them in error may have fared very differently, depending on when they made their request.

Many overpayments of tax credit arise through HMRC (‘official’) error.

Nevertheless, HMRC’s practice is to recover such overpayments from the claimant, unless the claimant can show that they reasonably thought their award was correct. This ‘reasonableness test’ is very stringently applied by HMRC, who not infrequently expect claimants to spot errors which HMRC themselves have not spotted.

More...

Claimants easily make mistakes in complex system

Claimants easily make mistakes in complex system

....

About 367,500 families appealed last year against the Government’s attempt to recover an overpayment.

MPs slam tax credits system

MPs slam tax credits system Tash Shifrin, Computerworld UK IT performance still in question: 10 May 2007

UK Members of Parliament (MPs) have renewed their criticism of the troubled tax credits system, which overpaid £5.8 billion to claimants in its first three years of operation.

The tax credit IT system has been repeatedly hit by crises, contributing to overpayments to claimants totalling £4bn between 2003-04 and 2004-05. Since then the government announced changes to the tax credit scheme, while a series of changes have been made to the IT system.
Last year, paymaster general Dawn Primarolo told the Commons Treasury committee that the IT problems had largely been ironed out. "IT performance has been significantly improved. In total there have been 300 improvements made to the system since April 2005," she said, adding that a new software release in November 2005 had delivered "real improvements in operational performance".

But in its fourth report on tax credits, the powerful Commons public accounts committee (PAC) paints a picture of continuing overpayments and a lack of basic information about the payments being made.

The MPs' report notes that the overpayments total has now risen to £5.8bn over the first three years of the scheme, although changes are expected to eventually reduce overpayments by one third.

But HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) "does not have complete information on the causes of overpayments and is uncertain about how far each measure will reduce overpayments", the report said.

The MPs' findings echo concerns raised in the Treasury committee's report of June last year that HMRC had no idea what role IT systems had played in the tax credits fiasco. "We have seen nothing from the department attempting to assess the contribution made by IT system error," the Treasury committee said.

The PAC's inquiry found that while the design of the tax credits system results in overpayments, "there have also been unforeseen overpayments due to software errors".

Continued here...

Compensation for tax credit victims

Compensation for tax credit victims

The Inland Revenue has decided not to bring in a special scheme to compensate people who have lost out because of the problematic introduction of the new tax credits.

They'll have to join everyone else with a tax complaint and follow the Revenue's official complaints procedure.

That might be a tall order because the tax office received 37,000 complaints last year on general tax matters alone.

At present the Revenue is making no extra provision to deal with the increase of complaints from tax credit cases.

..... (edited Read more at this link)

You can also claim for loss of earnings for the time you've spent on sorting out your benefit on the phone and visiting the tax office.

Tax Credit Compensation
Postage
Phone calls
Travel
Fees
Financial charges

The inland revenue will also compensate for cases of worry and distress. The amounts paid out in these instances can vary from £25 to £500.

..... (edited Read more at this link)

If you get no joy then you can try the director of the tax office, failing that, there's an adjudicator, and as a last resort there's the parliamentary ombudsman

..... (edited Read more at this link)

Sunday 1 February 2009

Tax Credits: When Tax Credits Go Bad


Tax Credit Casualties (TCC), founded in January 2005 in response to the shambles of Child and Working Tax Credits, and the overpayment bills blighting peoples lives. This website aims to bring all the issues and information you might need together in one place, in as logical and simple a way as possible. You can browse the site by using the navigation buttons on the left, and will find lots of useful and interesting information.