CCM8150 - Closing the Examination: Informing the Claimant – Closure Letter

In all cases you need to send the claimant a letter informing him/her the examination is now complete and the outcome. You might have already discussed this during a meeting or a telephone call but a written closure letter is still needed. For a joint claim you sent a copy of your opening letter to each claimant so you must also send your closure letter to each of them. Where you have opened an enquiry for an earlier year you must issue a closure letter for each year.

Your closure letter should tell them the amount of the revised award, so before you prepare your letter you will need to calculate the revised amount of tax credits using the 'NTC Calculator' available via SEES. If there is no entitlement to tax credits you will show the amount as £0.00.

The text for your closure letter will depend on whether the examination is pre or post-award.

• the text for your closure letter for a pre-award examination is at CCM21100:
• the text for a closure letter for a post-award examination is at CCM21210 but also see notes below
• the text for a closure letter for a post-award examination into an unprocessed change of circumstances is at CCM21220 but see also notes below

Where there is an overpayment which is recoverable in-year (see CCM8125) your closure letter (or a covering letter) should include the following extra text:

"The tax credits overpaid since [06/04/XXXX] are repayable within 30 days of the date of the formal notice of my decision."

If the overpayment relates to fraud or neglect (see CCM8127) you must also add the following words to the text shown above:

"If you are late making your payment we will charge you interest".