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View Full Version : Okay, now I REALLY need your help desperately...


spider
10-12-2007, 08:50 AM
This was posted on one of my mothers forums before breaking into floods of tears...

Hi all, any help or advice on my situation would be much appreciated at this time, as i am now at a loss as to what i can do next.

I am a single parent on income support, i have two children on my tax credit claim, one aged 17 and in fulltime education, and one aged 15 who has aspergers syndrome( a form of autism ) and attends a special school. Due to a catalogue of errors in the tax credit office - which they admit to - my payments have been stopped and i have recieved no payment into my bank since august 23rd 2007.

I managed to get 2 weeks payment from the inland revenue office on october 4th, as an off system payment, and that was after much wrangling, and despite tax credit helpline staff telling me that such payments are rarely, if ever, made. On contacting the tax credit helpline again today (the term 'helpline'i use loosely here, as they have never been any help whatsoever ), my claim remains unrestored, and there is nothing i can do but wait, the fact that i have two children to support, bills to pay etc, is of no concern to them it seems.
On contacting the inland revenue office again today to arrange another off system payment, i have been told that it may not happen, as according to them the tax credit office have said they should be taking over manual payments themselves - the information given to me by the tax credit office is that they wont be doing that. I have been advised by the inland revenue office to call again next wednesday to find out what, if any, payment they can make.

I have reached complete stalemate with this now, and am on the verge of breaking down completely, as life is already stressful with a special needs child, and my two older children also living with me, one of whom cant work as he is also autistic, and continuing to emotionally support my ex husband - who is the father of the children, and is sadly suffering with a brain tumour.

All this on top of being persued for a so called over payment of £4000, which goes back to an old joint claim of three years ago between my ex husband and myself. All their errors again, but an appeal on that failed, and it has to be paid back. That though has nothing to do with this claim, and is the least of my worries at the moment, as my financial situation is becoming increasingly desperate, and i MUST have the payments to which i am entitled to, to feed and support my children, restored, before i break down completely with the sress of it all.
Hoping that you can offer any help or advice, i have just emailed my local MP, to see if he can do anything. Other than that - well, im stumped!

The overpaymnet on the previous claim is being paid back at £1 a week currently, which was arranged by me in may of this year, to prevent them taking me to court and to stop them relentlessy pursuing my ex, who is very ill and couldnt deal with the hassle. The problems with my current claim began when they said they hadnt recieved my renewal form - i did send it - so i gave them all info required by phone, the third time i had done so. They said thats fine, nothing further to be done. Then i recived a letter saying payments will stop if i dont give them the info needed, so i rang them again, they said no-one had updated anything, so they took all info again, apologised and said nothing further needs to be done now. One week later i had a call from them saying they still needed some info or payments will stop!!! Gave them the info required - for the fifth time now - they apologised and said nothing further needs doing. Then i got a letter saying 'payments will now stop', due to me not supplying them with the info needed!!! Rang them again, they apologised, said no-one had updated the system, took all the info for the sixth time, and assured me that payments would continue. Payment day comes round, and wow, big suprise, no money. Helpline are getting sick of me ringing now, ive been advised by two different operators to send in a new claim and just dispute it when they try and get back the money ive recieved so far. ( nothing to do with the previous claims overpayment) . But when i rang to ask them where is the new claim pack they are supposed to be sending, i spoke to a line manager, who was horrified to hear that id been advised to do that, and said she would arrange for my claim to be restored, as it should never have been stopped. So here i am still waiting.

http://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=367

As if worrying about everything else wasn't enough I'm owed over £300 collectively but have yet to see any of it to a point where the bank contacted me telling me I'm well over my overdraft limit and have not recieved any money in the past month, if this continues my account will be closed.
Where is this money I'm owed? Good question.
Part of it is owed to me from my previous job (who I could feasably sue for unfair dismissal, soon as they learned I'm an eensy bit autistic I was out),
I've been ringing all week chasing them up for money I should have by now.

The other money is owed to me from the Jobcentreplus office,
I should have it by now yet don't and they somehow expect me to sign in Monday? How? I need to pay for transport.
I contact them enquiring what I can do, "we can get part of the moneys to you on Wednesday but you need to come in today to confirm it."
Today? TODAY!!?
How the fuck do I get there on such short notice and what use is this money to me after Monday if I need it to get there for that day?
According to them, I'll just have to not come till Wednesday and put in a new claim, therefore making my situation more dire.

It seems yelling at these people doesn't work,
all the while people are being evicted from their homes because of bullshit like this, while foreigners can come in and are given whatever they need.

I think I've already gone into the other shit that adds to it, like my severly autistic brother who pulls stupid shit like attempting to set himself on fire all the time, or my terminally ill father who finds it hard to even speak let alone deal with a years old joint claim that shouldn't be an issue anymore.
That and we have a centuries old toilet that needs replacing, a back door with a big ass hole in it that needs replacing, floorboards we're gradually sinking into because of woodworm that need replacing AGH!! IT NEVER ENDS!!

I feel like yelling at everything from tax credits to my old job but I guess when you're on the sinking Titanic you don't have time to yell at the iceberg.

Screeny
10-12-2007, 09:20 AM
OK, I skim read most of this but I understand that the jist of it concerns tax credit overpayment. This is one of the biggest fuck-ups our government has mismanaged since it's inception. The tax credit office's procedures have undergone two separate reviews and, to date, not one of the recommendations has been actioned - they specifically referred to the string of underpayments/overpayments being made thereby putting people in the shit financially. Ths crux of the issue lies in people submitting their financial info to the tax credits office and a payment is calculated based on that information - the calcualtion process is one known only to the number crunchers and so claimants (quite rightly) assume that whatever payment they receive (providing that the correct info was supplied) is correct. I firmly believe that claimants should not be held responsible for repaying overpayments which were a result of the tax credit office's repeated incompetence.

My only advice here would be to pass all of this info onto her local MP - and also remind you that hundreds of thousands of pounds in overpayments have been written off in the past because, to all intents & purposes, the tax credit office's position in this is untenable - particularly in light if their failure to action any of the points raised by the two investigations.

spider
10-12-2007, 10:18 AM
We've contacted our MP, apparently it's better to write to them personally than email because they never respond to emails (though because of the current postal strikes it looks like there is only one option).

Right now our overpayment has been arranged for £1 a week, mainly to get them off our backs a bit.
The real problem here is their consistant fuck-ups with the current claim, in the meantime we are getting no money whatsoever.

National newspapers have been contacted so hopefully that will shit them up a bit.

Right now we are living on borrowed time, it's a possibilty if this isn't sorted in the coming months the internet connection and TV license will be gone and the bailiffs will be here taking all our stuff. :cry:

Screeny
10-12-2007, 11:11 AM
What annoys me most about all this is that in any privately run organistaion, this level of sheer incompetence and utter mismanagement would have been sorted out with a few selected sackings and arse kickings within a couple of days. The civil service operates on a seemingly 'bulletproof' wavelength, intentionally structuring their departments so that no individual or group of individuals can be held accountable for any fuck up(s) whilst overpaid 'no job' beurocrats are incapable of making a decision unless it is in the 'manual' - initiative and/or common sense is evidently not a desirable quality in any government job.

I'll wager a pound to a pinch of shit that you got the stock 'this matter is not open for dispute' letter when the shit first hit the fan.Your plan to get the press on board is your only real avenue here - play on the fact that government action normally stems from any bad publicity and, in light of Labour's recent downturn in the polls, you may be fortunate enough to get some coverage. If your local MP is Conservative then more the better - BTW, I've always had success with emailing my local MP - he seems to be on his computer for at least 2 hours a night - and he's a member of the Labour party - any opposition MP would relish the thought of pouncing on your case given the current climate.

Screeny
10-12-2007, 11:14 AM
Right now we are living on borrowed time, it's a possibilty if this isn't sorted in the coming months the internet connection and TV license will be gone and the bailiffs will be here taking all our stuff. :cry:

..and fuck the bailiffs. They're nothing more than scum sucking pond-life who rank lower in the 'maggot' job scale than traffic wardens & wheel clampers.

spider
10-12-2007, 11:31 AM
I understand if you skimmed over most of it, but read to the end of the second quote as it's both depressing and hilarious in equal measure.
Our MP is liberal so that should work in our favour I think (I'm hopeless with political terms which is why I stay out of big issue debates round here),
right now I would kill for any maggot job if it got me out of debt.

The cold hard truth is any temporary work would be useless to me right now (I'm not financially comfortable to go through the hassle with the Jobcentre for a new claim) plus I'm never likely to last in any mid-level/higher management job or something that requires skill outside of design.