Chris Fox (Chair)
Kevin O’Hanlon (Secretary)
Irenka Timlin
Derek Tilstone
Rachel Watson
Ann Chinner
Mick Ney
Mark Bravery
Irene O’Brien
Jonathan Langridge Les Searle
David Skinner
Victoria Hughes
Andrew Burland
Gordon Smith
Mike Hanson
Simon Habesch
Alison Walsh
Gio Marino
Roger Pugh
Beth Lakhani - Child Poverty Action Group
Victoria Todd - Low Incomes Tax Reform Group
Lindsay Isaacs - Citizens Advice Scotland
Katie Lane - Citizens Advice
John Andrews - Low Incomes Tax Reform Group
Jane Moore - Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales
Lucy Cochrane - Citizens Advice Northern Ireland
Sylvia Gilbert - Local Government Association
David Stickland - Local Government Association
David Brodie - TaxAid
Julie Mitchell - One Parent Families
Fran Bennett Joseph - Rowntree Foundation
Richard Exell - TUC
Jane Hayball - Local Government Association
Pauline Hunter - Disability Alliance
Chris welcomed everyone to the meeting, which she would chair as Nigel had to attend another meeting – he sent his apologies. Chris said that Mike Hanson, an HMRC board member, would attend part of the meeting.
Representatives said that the following points had emerged from their own pre-meeting
HMRC said that they had received comments from two representatives and confirmed that they would reflect those comments – they aimed to issue the minutes for the November meeting by 18 January.
Representatives reminded HMRC that there were some actions taken at the November meeting on which information was awaited including, for example
Representatives acknowledged that they probably see some of the most difficult cases where things had gone wrong with customer’s claims and realised it could take time to sort out those more difficult cases. They were, however, concerned about the delays they experience. HMRC explained that a number of cases involving complaints, disputed overpayments and appeals affected by the administrative problem had taken them longer than they would have liked to deal with. The processes for dealing with the administration problem had now bedded in and the affected work on the complaints and overpayments teams was steadily being cleared – the aim was to be dealing with complaints within three weeks; disputes about the recovery of overpayments should be in a better position by the end of March.
Representatives asked that they be advised of any delays in the future via the Consultation Group and for some details about the number of appeals outstanding.
Debt management - HMRC were grateful to representatives for their
detailed input at the debt meeting the previous week. Representatives said
that the debt meeting had been constructive and that HMRC had a clear desire
to act but they were concerned
HMRC confirmed that work had started on all the aspects discussed, including improved contact/co-ordination between TCO and Debt Management colleagues, and said they will let representatives see the outcomes as soon as possible.
TC689 authorisation form - Representatives said that they still have
some problems with the TC689 authorisation form. HMRC confirmed that
HMRC said that they will circulate the form to representatives before the final version is issued. They will also provide a note on the new procedures
Late renewals - representatives asked whether awards can be put back into payment where the customer makes a late renewal and reported that they had heard of some cases where customers had been advised to make a new claim. HMRC confirmed that claims could be renewed after 31 July if customers had good cause for the delay. Most cases are restored without difficulty but, for a small number, technical problems may prevent them being restored – where that happens, manual payments would be set up.
HMRC thanked representatives for their comments on the latest draft of the revised CoP 26 and for meeting the very tight deadlines for providing those comments. They were reviewing those and would send a revised draft very shortly. They agreed they needed to make customers aware of the 30 day time limit – amendments were being made to the short checklist TC602(SN), which goes out to customers with each award notice, to incorporate details.
Representatives agreed that the revised approach set out in CoP 26 was a
positive improvement which would be of benefit to customers and were keen
that the issues they had raised on the guidance would be addressed in time.
HMRC confirmed they would look at the detail with representatives in the CoP
26 meeting which would take place very shortly.
.
HMRC had published further consultation document on 10 January, which can be viewed on the HMRC website under the title Payments, Repayments and Debt
This
A number of aspects were still being developed including, for example, flexible payment schemes, direct attachment of assets, tracing missing taxpayers and recovering costs.
Representatives made a number of initial comments. HMRC thanked representatives
for those and said that they would welcome detailed views from them. They
confirmed that they had already had a composite reply from
money advice organisations.
HMRC thanked representatives for their comments following the paper they had circulated about the implications of the introduction of Employment and Support Allowance for tax credits. They had replied to the comments received so far and asked representatives for any other comments.
Representatives were specifically interested in the impact on customers who were receiving Invalidity Benefit. HMRC said that the detailed regulations were expected at the end of February they will be discussing further with DWP colleagues.
Website - HMRC reported that work continued against the outline structure described at the last meeting - all outline briefs had gone to the copywriters and they had received a number of articles back from the copywriters.
Childcare - HMRC said they are continuing to explore options around the changes suggested by the representatives. They will write to members of the working group as soon as possible to tell them their conclusions.
Passported benefits - The next meeting of this group will be on 8 February. They said that they will clear action points from the last Working Group meeting ahead of the next meeting where possible.
Migrants and Immigration - HMRC thanked representatives for their input on the draft leaflet and reported that they were considering what amendments needed to be made. They would confirm the date of the next meeting and return an annotated copy of the paper provided by representatives.
Representatives mentioned that they are concerned about the effect on tax credits customers of any proposed changes to the residence/domicile rules.
DLA - The next meeting of this group will be on 1 February.
Complaints and redress - HMRC asked representatives to say if they want to be part of this working group and let them know of the issues they would like to cover, ahead of the planned meeting in February.
DWP reported that, following a review of the fast track process, the fast track proforma they use will now only be used for new claims, specifically:
DWP will keep the process under review, and agreed to share a copy of the guidance for staff on the procedures, with representatives.
HMRC agreed to provide a list of outstanding action points.
Representatives asked whether advisers, who used the eligibility calculator to check how much tax credits a caller might be entitled to, might not issue a claim form depending on the result of the calculation. HMRC said that they would need to check.
A representative pointed out that there will be extensive consultation over the next year on the Taxpayer’s Charter and the impact for tax credits customers would need to be considered.
Representatives asked what access C-MEC (the replacement for the Child Support Agency) will have to HMRC data to assist them in tracing absent parents. HMRC said that they will provide feedback at the next meeting.
