TCM0064020 - Claims: capture (D-K): date of claim - identification (Info)
The date of claim means the date the claim is received or made at an appropriate office. Claims can be posted or made face-to-face at the following offices
- HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
- Jobcentre Plus
- Department for Communities (DfC) in Northern Ireland.
Claims can only be made through the post at the following offices
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
The date of claim for a paper claim will be the date stamped on the form TC600 by the receiving office.
The receiving office should stamp the front page of the TC600 with that day’s date, but you must be aware that the date stamp could appear on any page.
Paper claims sent by the Rapid Data Capture (RDC) process will be stamped at the RDC Processing Centre on the day they are received. This will be the date of claim.
Claims which are made electronically over the internet or at Jobcentre Plus offices will be treated as being made on the day the customer or Jobcentre Plus operator chooses the ‘submit’ option on screen.
Claims can be made face-to-face at an appropriate office. These claims are made electronically. The date of claim in these cases will be the day the customer provides sufficient information for the claim to be captured.
More than one ‘received’ stamp could appear on a TC600. In these cases, the earliest date received at an appropriate office should be taken as the date of claim.
The date stamp on its own isn’t proof of the date of receipt. You must consider all the evidence available. For example, the date stamp may be earlier than the date the customer signed the TC600. You must decide from the available evidence what the date of the claim actually is.