Discover what the Government are really up-to.
Piles of Money
Biggest Tax Credits Pay out Ever, and on Time!!!
Thursday 29 April 2010
Saturday 24 April 2010
Liberal Democrats. Income Tax and Tax Credits
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
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
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
Friday 9 April 2010
HAVE YOU CLAIMED TAX CREDITS?
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
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
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?
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?
Wednesday 7 April 2010
Tuesday 6 April 2010
Election 2010 Party Manifestos: Tax Credits
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...
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
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
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
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...
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)
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.
Also discover what the Government SAY* thay will do if elected.
* May be this is just more talk to try get votes.
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