A frugal life is an easy life!

It is disturbing enough that a 3rd party company is handling childcare cost aspects of tax credit claims and that HMRC will not discuss them at all, but should this same firm have the power to suspend or stop a claim?
I don't think so.

Recently had a firm called Concentrix, claim that over payment had been made and insisted that if written confirmation wasn't sent to them in a month then the full claim would be stopped.

After running around between the former nursery and concentrix, their advisor stated that there was no record on the HMRC customer file, that HNRC had been notified this had ceased, hence the over payment.
Another hour on the phone to concentrix, before finally went for the "I'll speak with your supervisor now" route, where, on explaining that the former nursery no longer had sprog2 on file as she hadn't attended there in almost a year, as if by magic, the correct HMRC information was suddenly visible to a concentrix advisor!
Within two days a letter was received stating that "I have decided that no further investigation is required and your claim can proceed"

"I"?
Shouldn't 3rd party companies working for HMRC have to produce evidence to HMRC and shouldn't it be them that take a decision to stop a claim?
Lest we forget, any company working as a third party will be being paid on results, a very dangerous game to be playing when people's income is at risk!

Next we have Experian, a company I have had the misfortune to have dealt with in the past.
"You can now renew tax credits online via the website" the 2 minute long answering machine tells me.
I went to the website where a number of companies are available to renew online, but only Experian was available in this case.

All you will need is a driving license or passport number.

Off I went to renew, question after question about personal circumstances, etc. Not a single mention of passport number or driving license reference.
I closed the browser, as it looked distinctly like it was farming for personal and financial information.
At no point in time did experian's website ask for input of a driving license or passport number.
It stated authorisation couldn't be completed, but to come back and try again once I had "details of a credit card, loan, mortgage or current account with overdraft facility"

I registered a complaint via HMRC website.
While this was being investigated, I started to receive junk mail, inviting me to take out credit cards or loans that would "improve my credit rating"
HMRC assured me that this was merely coincidence and confirmed that experian are not allowed to use HMRC data in this way, regarding their 3rd party companies.

Funny though, that since registering a formal complaint for this, the junk mail I had started to receive, has completely stopped. I suppose this is coincidence as well?

Finally we have HMRC advisors themselves.
The renewal was processed and the new information came out.
Only both incomes were wrong, the income that was no longer relevant had not been changed, the overall earnings were incorrect and income for the year ahead was also increased and didn't even add up with the incorrect income they had entered.

When I finally got through on the tax credits helpline, 30 minutes of waiting and discussing the case, the advisor came back on the line with an amazing claim.

"It wasn't the last advisor's fault that figures were not accurate, it was your employer that entered the income earned incorrectly on HMRC's system!"
- But both people do not work for the same employer, so this cannot be true?
"Errrrr but they provide income information"
- One person hasn't got an employer!
"Well anyway, I've corrected all the information but it won't change the value of the claim"
- It clearly states that any change of income should be given to the tax credits office to avoid over or under payment?
- In the past payments have always been adjusted on the new information?
"Oh well it probably will affect your payments then!"

The claim was only updated from today and not from a month ago when it should have been.

If HMRC staff do not know what's going on then how are people who have to claim going to know?
This is not some commodity to be traded or a product, this is essential income that people need to be able to LIVE, many of the more than 21 Million claimants, live week to week and need this safety net needs to be provided with care and attention to detail.

This might even cut down on time needed to help more people? A crazy idea I know...