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Need some help, advice how to best proceed from this point.
I was getting 'Working tax credit' for around 2 years, which ended in April 2011.
The HMRC tax credit compliance team, supposedly out of the blue, demanded three months paperwork to demonstrate my earnings.
First time I had encountered anything like this, unsure of what exactly they wanted I presumed they wanted financial info from me being associated with HMRC, which I provided. It took a few letters and calls to establish that they were not interested in the financials, but wanted proof that i had worked 30 hours a week in the form of a working diary.
I sent a table of dates and jobs and times spent on the jobs for the requested periods, Jan to April 2011 from memory.
My table demonstrated at least 30 hours a week.
Their response was to say they are no satisfied with the paperwork provided and demanded to see another three/four month segment, going back to the start of my trading, almost two years before, my first 3 months trading. Useful to know that before being self employed and getting working tax I was previously unemployed, in receipt of JSA.
This again I provided within their very short deadline, around 14 days I think.
They responded to my second set of figures with the term "remunerative hours".
Wtf are remunerative hours?
Hours that are spent that will generate direct payment, as in work for funds. Working on a web site, or flyer distributing, or cold calling or trying to generate work for a new business don't count as remunerative hours, apparently.
Some of the hours I wrote included some of these items, website building for example, towards my business which was property maintenance and repairs, I can build basic web sites myself.
Anyway, they decided in their wisdom that I did not in fact work the minimum of 30 hours a week and stopped my claim. They then demanded full repayment of the entire two years payment I had received.
It was only £65pw but for one year it's £2,700.
I replied that their website, nor any paperwork proper to this date mentioned anything about remunerative terms.
I made an official complaint against the woman who came to this decision, a Mrs Greenford.
Apparently Mrs Greenford and the office she worked for no longer exist, but the decision does, it's been transferred down the chain of bureaucracy.
I involved my MP but all he ever does is pass messages between both parties and nothing more, which takes him months.
I argued that if they were going to backdate my claim without even giving me which date i supposedly failed on, that I would hypothetically make a new claim fro the following day.
I can't do that either, they can backdate a decision for at least two years, but I can only make a backdated claim for up to three months.
Nice.
Their decision directly affected my ability to continue working and forced me to cease trading and return to JSA.
Simply put, the £65 a week at that time was making all the difference, just for parking fees and petrol for eg.
Next came the tribunal which I naively did not attend, I trusted that my paperwork and letters I'd sent would speak clearly and sense would prevail.
I was deluding myself, the tribunals decision was that clearly I did not work 35 remunerative hours a week and ruled in the favour of HMRC.
I should have resonded back then but frankly I had had enough, obviously they made an error as it was only ever supposed to be 30 hours and not 35. Judging by their response I doubt they even bothered reading my defense.
Things were quiet for almost a year until a couple of weeks ago, I had a letter from HMRC saying I need to pay them £2,700 but I can pay in installments if I like.
Today I received a letter from dlc a specialist collections organization to collect tax credit payment.
I've gone to a lot of trouble this past two years to improve my credit score, last thing I need now is a new default.
So, I'd like to get it back to the stage of tribunal, but I want to attend in person this time.
I also need some clarification on my point of them adding remunerative hours to the contract after the fact.
Does the county court have any power over HMRC?
My logical next step or to reply to HMRC, again disputing that I owe anything at all but not sure that will do any good.
I've now started working for myself again without help from the government, I've been working as a gas engineer since April 2013, just this last month is the first time is years I have the money to pay my rent on time, things are starting to improve.
To get this HMRC/dlc demand right now is soul draining.
I was getting 'Working tax credit' for around 2 years, which ended in April 2011.
The HMRC tax credit compliance team, supposedly out of the blue, demanded three months paperwork to demonstrate my earnings.
First time I had encountered anything like this, unsure of what exactly they wanted I presumed they wanted financial info from me being associated with HMRC, which I provided. It took a few letters and calls to establish that they were not interested in the financials, but wanted proof that i had worked 30 hours a week in the form of a working diary.
I sent a table of dates and jobs and times spent on the jobs for the requested periods, Jan to April 2011 from memory.
My table demonstrated at least 30 hours a week.
Their response was to say they are no satisfied with the paperwork provided and demanded to see another three/four month segment, going back to the start of my trading, almost two years before, my first 3 months trading. Useful to know that before being self employed and getting working tax I was previously unemployed, in receipt of JSA.
This again I provided within their very short deadline, around 14 days I think.
They responded to my second set of figures with the term "remunerative hours".
Wtf are remunerative hours?
Hours that are spent that will generate direct payment, as in work for funds. Working on a web site, or flyer distributing, or cold calling or trying to generate work for a new business don't count as remunerative hours, apparently.
Some of the hours I wrote included some of these items, website building for example, towards my business which was property maintenance and repairs, I can build basic web sites myself.
Anyway, they decided in their wisdom that I did not in fact work the minimum of 30 hours a week and stopped my claim. They then demanded full repayment of the entire two years payment I had received.
It was only £65pw but for one year it's £2,700.
I replied that their website, nor any paperwork proper to this date mentioned anything about remunerative terms.
I made an official complaint against the woman who came to this decision, a Mrs Greenford.
Apparently Mrs Greenford and the office she worked for no longer exist, but the decision does, it's been transferred down the chain of bureaucracy.
I involved my MP but all he ever does is pass messages between both parties and nothing more, which takes him months.
I argued that if they were going to backdate my claim without even giving me which date i supposedly failed on, that I would hypothetically make a new claim fro the following day.
I can't do that either, they can backdate a decision for at least two years, but I can only make a backdated claim for up to three months.
Nice.
Their decision directly affected my ability to continue working and forced me to cease trading and return to JSA.
Simply put, the £65 a week at that time was making all the difference, just for parking fees and petrol for eg.
Next came the tribunal which I naively did not attend, I trusted that my paperwork and letters I'd sent would speak clearly and sense would prevail.
I was deluding myself, the tribunals decision was that clearly I did not work 35 remunerative hours a week and ruled in the favour of HMRC.
I should have resonded back then but frankly I had had enough, obviously they made an error as it was only ever supposed to be 30 hours and not 35. Judging by their response I doubt they even bothered reading my defense.
Things were quiet for almost a year until a couple of weeks ago, I had a letter from HMRC saying I need to pay them £2,700 but I can pay in installments if I like.
Today I received a letter from dlc a specialist collections organization to collect tax credit payment.
I've gone to a lot of trouble this past two years to improve my credit score, last thing I need now is a new default.
So, I'd like to get it back to the stage of tribunal, but I want to attend in person this time.
I also need some clarification on my point of them adding remunerative hours to the contract after the fact.
Does the county court have any power over HMRC?
My logical next step or to reply to HMRC, again disputing that I owe anything at all but not sure that will do any good.
I've now started working for myself again without help from the government, I've been working as a gas engineer since April 2013, just this last month is the first time is years I have the money to pay my rent on time, things are starting to improve.
To get this HMRC/dlc demand right now is soul draining.
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