Minutes of the Tax Credits Consultation Group meeting
on 16 November 2005

Attendees

Representatives:

John Andrews (LITRG)
Robin Williamson (LITRG)
Martin Clarke (LITRG)
Kate Bell (One Parent Families)
Katie Lane (Citizens Advice)
Peter Gravestock (ATT)
Beth Lakhani (CPAG)
Lindsay Isaacs (Citizens Advice Scotland)
Jane Hayball (LGA Greenwich)
Liz Lathwood (CIOT)
Anne Wright (CIOT)
Pauline Hunter (Disability Alliance)
Joyce Humphrey (TaxAid)
Jane Moore (ICAEW)
Andy Platt (NAWRA)

HMRC:

Nigel Jordan (Chairman), Maureen Morrison, Pauline Brookfield, Vince Groome, David Skinner, Keith Golding, Alex Bellis, Jo Toal, Liz Welsh, Irenka Timlin (acting secretary)

DWP:

Roger Pugh

Apologies for absence were received from Daphne Hooper (HMRC), David Kinloch (LGA) and Fran Robinson (LGA).

Contents

1. Minutes Of The Meeting Held On 22 September 2005

Nigel Jordan apologised that the final version of the minutes had not been circulated in advance of the meeting. Members had seen the draft minutes and amendments had been incorporated. The final version would be issued shortly.

2. Matters Arising

NINOs

Representatives reported that tax credits entitlement was proving difficult where one party in a couple did not have a NINO or where temporary NINOs were issued. HMRC and DWP would investigate this further and report back at the next meeting.

Civil Partnerships

Representatives sought reassurance that as a result of the recent change in law relating to civil partnerships couples who notified changes of circumstances late would not be subject to penalties. HMRC said they would review the guidance in the Tax Credits Compliance Manual (15300).

Write-offs for Hardship Cases

HMRC said that they handled all hardship cases including those referred from tax credits. When cases were referred to their Debt Management and Banking Services (DBMS) they were reviewed individually.

HMRC confirmed that if recovery was disputed, that would trigger suspension, whether the dispute was on the grounds of official error or hardship.

Representatives noted that COP 26 refers to write-off of debt and not just negotiating terms for payment. Representatives also said that there were problems with the interaction of additional payments and claimants are put off asking for additional payments as there is a common perception that additional payments will increase overpayments whilst, in reality, such payments only delay recovery.

3. Communications Review

Chris Hopson, Director of Communications and Marketing for HMRC gave a presentation and explained that he was sponsoring a review of the communications about tax credits with the aim of improving the service to claimants. This end-to-end review, led by HMRC’s Communications and Marketing Team, aimed to produce suggestions on how communications throughout the process could be improved. It would be focused on the claimant’s point of view and their needs.

4. Code of Practice 26

HMRC reported that it was intended to send out a draft version of Code of Practice 26 shortly and another meeting was being planned in the near future.

A further revision will be necessary for the year 2006-07 to reflect the changes outlined in the Paymaster General’s statement following the Chancellor’s Pre Budget Report.

COP 26 will cover the recently introduced suspended recovery of disputed overpayments. (Post meeting note: a COP 26 workshop was held on 8 December 2005. Draft minutes will shortly be circulated and, once agreed, circulated to the whole Group.)

5. Working Groups - Updates

Disability Living Allowance

Nigel Jordan reported that there continued to be legal questions around accepting third party information to adjust entitlement. The legal position is still being clarified. The ideal situation would be an online data feed but, until the legal issue was resolved, this could not proceed.

It was agreed that HMRC would continue to raise this matter at data sharing meetings.

Backdating

HMRC circulated a note of the meeting and progress. Backdating has been shown to be a multi-stranded issue but they aimed to re-engage with the working group to take the matter forward and identify priorities. Representatives noted that the note of the meeting was not the final version. The correct version of minutes would be circulated and a meeting arranged to follow on from the meeting on Code of Practice 26. (Post-meeting note: a meeting was held on 8 December).

Further information regarding asylum seekers was requested. A manual process is currently being drafted to apply appropriate backdating to claimants who are granted asylum.

Representatives were concerned about the impact of backdating for same-sex couples and asked for further publicity on this to be provided. HMRC said they would take this forward.

Complaints

It was noted that the Ombudsman and the Adjudicator had been invited to join the working group. HMRC said they would arrange a meeting for the end November/early December. (Post meeting note: meeting arranged for 15 December 2005.)

Appeals

It was reported that the first meeting had taken place in September and an action plan had been circulated to the members. An update on the activity against the action plan was to be issued during the current week and this will form the basis for discussion at the next meeting on 28 November. Representatives mentioned problems with couples and appeal procedures; it was agreed to deal with these at that meeting.

Better Off Calculator and other DWP issues

Roger Pugh reported that a meeting was held on 19 October to explore further the developments within DWP of the better-off calculator. The longer term goal would be the provision of a better off calculator that could incorporate all benefits including tax credits, but, as there were funding issues, in the shorter term the aim would be to focus on the DWP current model and enhance the model with additional capability. There was also a brainstorm session to capture all the enhancements that the attendees would like to see.

Roger Pugh would circulate the minutes to the Group once they were finalised and representatives asked for a further meeting as soon as possible.

Representatives asked whether any progress had been made on the matter of the interaction between Pension Credit and WTC. David Skinner suggested that a meeting be held in the New Year to follow up on the feedback from representatives.

Website

The information on (the old) Children’s Tax Credit would be on the website this week. It was confirmed that the information was on the website, however, there was no link to the claim form. HMRC said they would check if a link can be established.

Other progress includes:

  • Dates are now used on the ‘What’s New’ page and an archive has been created
  • Information about services to the visually impaired can now be accessed through the tax credits home page
  • An entry has been created for the NTC Manual under ‘T’ for Tax Credits
  • A process has been set up to ensure that updates to the NTC Manual are reviewed so that, where appropriate, ‘What’s New’ entries are published
  • A review of FAQs is underway (further FAQs on the position of couples might be appropriate)
  • A review of the glossary is underway.

6. New Issues

Award Notices – HMRC noted that the award notices circulated at the meeting were largely agreed for 2006, but comments would be considered for any future revision. Representatives suggested that there also needed to be access to full calculations of entitlement on request. They asked for further discussion on these notices. They said they did not cover many scenarios and it was difficult to see the logic of some of the facts and figures presented. HMRC agreed to look again at what had been circulated, to see what was missing and possibly arrange another meeting on the award notice.

Manual Payments – Representatives reported that there continued to be difficulties for those customers on long term manual payments. Nigel Jordan said that the overall number of categories of claimants was reducing as the IT systems developed, but it was recognised that the problem still existed for some. HMRC said that claimants should only have to visit Enquiry Centres now for emergency payments – giros should otherwise be sent by post.

Errors in Children numbers – It was reported that on occasions the number of children recorded (and calculations based on these numbers) changed for no apparent reason. HMRC requested actual examples so they could check why this was happening.

DMBS Statement of Liabilities – The period showing was 2003. HMRC requested details of the letter that was attached to the Statement for this case so they could pursue the problem.

Management Information held by Intermediaries Helpline - Representatives were concerned about the frequency of the engaged message on calling the intermediaries helpline. They said there was no queuing system and this made it difficult when intermediaries were calling with clients in a meeting. HMRC said they would report back to the next meeting on the capacity to monitor these occurrences.

Better Guidance Programme – through Working Together, representatives had been advised that tax credits guidance was going to be included in the new Customer Adviser Guide. Representatives wanted to know if this guidance would be shared with them as it was being developed.

System problems – representatives said problems were still being encountered, eg the number of children, discrepancies in different parts of the form and 2003 demands. HMRC asked for examples and said they would investigate them.

7. Next Meeting

The next meeting would be held on Wednesday 18 January 2006, starting at 10.00am, in the Conference Room, 3rd Floor, 22 Kingsway, London WC2.