Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Citizens Advice
Q33 11 January 2006—Telephone records
Following our oral evidence session on 11 January,
Citizens Advice has received some feedback from Citizens Advice
Bureaux which have recently been successful in obtaining records
of telephone conversations between clients and the Tax Credits
Office (TCO) helpline.
The phone records received by bureaux prove
that their clients reported changes of circumstances and queried
errors despite having been told by the TCO that their overpayment
could not be written off because they failed to report these things.
In one case, the CD sent to the client held
recordings of the 17 calls they made to advise of the change and
recorded the helpline adviser saying that the change was being
noted.
In another case, the dispute concerned the timing
of when the claimant reported a rise in her income. She was keen
to ensure an up-to-date income figure was used, before she started
to receive tax credits in April 2003, and on advice she completed
three applications. When asked to look into the recovery of the
overpayment, the Overpayment Disputes Team advised that she did
not report the change until June 2004. The client was nevertheless
sent a CD with recordings of pre April-2003 phone conversations
about the income change.
These cases raise the important question of
what records the overpayments disputes team look at when deciding
whether or not a claimant has reported a change when they say
they have. Full investigations instigated by Citizens Advice Bureaux
find that records held by the TCO fully support the claimant's
account, but have not been checked before the TCO concludes that
no report has been made.
If HMRC are to continue to use the reasonableness
test in deciding on the facts of a case, it is essential that
they take into account all the information available to them.
Q323 February 1 2006 PMG evidence—HMRC
working with Citizens Advice
In 2004-05 Citizens Advice Bureaux across England,
Wales and Northern Ireland advised on 140,000 tax credit problems.
Bureaux are also able to send in separate information, when they
advise on cases which raise particular issues for public policy.
In the past two years Citizens Advice has received more than 12,000
such reports from bureaux about tax credit problems.
The figure of 12,000 referred to by the Paymaster
General appears to refer to the number of these separate information
reports, which is a small subset of the overall number of tax
credit enquiries received by Citizens Advice Bureaux.
Both these figures were given in the report
published jointly with Citizens Advice Scotland in June 2005.
The following paragraphs are taking from the summary of the report
Money with your name on it? and describe the impact of tax credits
work on CAB advice work, as shown in this extract:
13. The scale of the problems faced by clients,
and the difficulties our advisers have had in resolving even relatively
simple errors and problems, have been very substantial. It is
noticeable that tax credit problems are causing disproportionate
levels of concern amongst our clients and advisers. Bureaux have
been asked to advise on around 150,000 client problems with tax
credits in the year from April 2004 to the end of March 2005.
In the past two years, Citizens Advice has received more than
12,000 reports and complaints about problems with tax credits
from bureaux.
14. Whilst this is not an extraordinary number
of client problems (compared with almost two million benefit problems
bureaux deal with each year, or 500,000 employment-related problems),
CAB advisers are saying that tax credits is their number one policy
concern. This appears to be because tax credit cases are extremely
complex and advisers find resolving them time-consuming. Also
in many cases the problems facing their clients are often very
serious indeed.
INNOVATIVE WAYS
OF WORKING
Citizens Advice is currently discussing with
HMRC a number of pilot projects aimed at helping speed the resolution
of tax credit problems. These include:
— Providing access for CAB advisers
to the difficult cases team in the Tax Credit Office.
This would enable advisers to speak to someone
with direct access to the claimants' records, who would be able
to deal with the case until the difficulties were resolved. We
think this is an option that would be of great benefit to clients,
who currently often find themselves speaking with a helpline adviser
who is simply not able to progress their case. This would enable
difficult cases to be dealt with more efficiently and save time
for both CAB advisers and HMRC staff.
— Tax credit surgeries in Citizens
Advice Bureaux run by HMRC staff.
The aim is for HMRC to provide a face-to-face
service in Citizens Advice Bureaux, possibly including providing
services in CAB outreach services. Initial very small-scale pilots
would be evaluated with a view to more widespread use of surgeries,
identifying resource implications and organisational issues. Citizens
Advice has identified several bureaux in the North and North West
England who will enter into discussion with the Revenue. We are
also discussing pilot working in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Bureaux will be keen to maintain an independent and confidential
service to clients. We will shortly be arranging meetings between
interested bureaux and HMRC to discuss how these pilots might
work.
— Secondment of HMRC staff to
Citizens Advice Specialist Support Unit.
The Specialist Support Unit provides further
advice and casework assistance to Citizens Advice Bureaux which
have been unable to resolve cases or require more specialist input.
Our initial preferred option was for HMRC to fund a dedicated
tax credit specialist in the Unit. Further discussions are due
to take place on how a secondment into the unit would work.
All these proposed pilots are in the early stages
of discussion.
February 2006
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