Responsibilities Of HMRC And The Claimant (Info)

 

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the claimant must meet the following responsibilities throughout a tax credit award to reduce the chance of an overpayment happening.

These responsibilities are

HMRC will

  • Give the claimant correct advice based on the information they give us
     
  • Accurately record the information the claimant provides when making or renewing a claim and use that information to calculate and pay tax credits
     
  • Include information the claimant has given us about their family and income when we issue an award notice and if the claimant tells us that the award notice is wrong, correct the mistake and send an amended award notice
     
  • Accurately record changes the claimant tells us about and send a new award notice within 30 days
     
  • Not hold the claimant responsible for any overpayment that occurs because we have made a mistake and failed to correct it when the claimant tells us about it
The claimant will
  • Give HMRC accurate and up to date information when they make or renew their claim
     
  • Tell HMRC about any changes that occur throughout the year so that we have accurate and up to date information
     
  • Use the checklist (TC602(SN)) that is sent with each award notice to check all the items listed and tell us within 30 days of receiving the award notice if anything is wrong, missing or incomplete

Note: Usually if the claimant contacts us within 34 days of the date the award notice was issued, we can treat them as meeting this responsibility. The extra 4 days is to allow for postage. There may be exceptional circumstances where a longer period can be considered, but these should be considered on an individual basis, taking account of the facts at the time

  • Tell HMRC about changes that must be reported within a month of them occurring. For more information, see Changes That Must Be Reported Within A Month Of Them Occurring
     
  • Check that the payments they receive from us every week or every four weeks match the amounts we told them about on their award notice. And tell us if they have received payments that did not match the amount that was shown on the award notice during the time the overpayment arose
Notes:
  1. It is in the claimant’s interests to report a change of circumstances as soon as possible to reduce any overpayment that might arise as a result of that change
  2. Where payment is made into a bank account the claimant must tell us as soon as they notice the overpayment. Some claimants may not receive a statement until more than a month after receiving an award notice. It will also take some claimants longer to check their accounts, for example those with Post Office card accounts who may need to go to a Post Office to check the amounts they receive
  3. The requirement for claimants to tell us within 30 days about a mistake we have made on their award notice or with their payments will apply to all overpayments occurring from 6 April 2007. If you are dealing with an overpayment that arose in a tax year before 2007-2008 the claimant must still tell us about our mistake promptly. (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

Where HMRC

  • Fails to meet its responsibilities and this causes a tax credits overpayment, and the claimant has met all their responsibilities, then HMRC should not seek to recover that overpayment
     
  • Fails to apply a change of circumstances correctly and this increases an overpayment, HMRC should not seek to recover the amount of the overpayment that arose as a result of that mistake
For example: A claimant’s working hours reduce from 35 to 29 on 2 June 2008. He reports the change on 20 June 2008 and on 24 June 2008 his hours are incorrectly captured as 30. The claimant reports the mistake on 1 July 2008 and his hours are corrected on the same day. HMRC should not seek to recover the overpayment that arose from 20 June 2008, when the claimant reported the change to 1 July 2008, when the mistake was corrected. Any overpayment that arose from 2 June 2008 to 19 June 2008 remains recoverable
  • Meets all its responsibilities and the claimant has failed to meet one or more of their responsibilities, HMRC will normally continue to recover the overpayment. However there may be exceptional circumstances that mean the claimant was prevented from meeting their responsibilities

Exceptional circumstances will be considered by your HO manager
 

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