Tax credits charade

Ok, well I knew everything was going too smoothly. Trust tax credits to make a balls up of it all.
Have painstakingly written down the dates of every call to the helpline and the full name of every person I have spoken to regarding my claim for working and child tax credits. Everything I've sent on paper has been copied and sent recorded delivery.
As soon as my other half and I had finally obtained his spousal visa I got off the plane and onto the phone asap, informed tax credits that I was no longer single and that I wanted to know if I was still entitled to apply for a joint claim bearing husbands visa in mind. First person did not know. Spoke to a manager who also did not seem to understand about NO RECOURSE TO PUBLIC FUNDS and said that differant departments use differant jargon so she didn't know what I meant. Eventually gave up after noting names and dates and forwarded this letter to the preston address......

Name, Address, national ins number etc

Dear sir/madam,
after speaking to one of your managers (name and date) I am sending this letter by recorded delivery to ensure that you are aware of my recent change in circumstances, namely my recent marriage (date of marriage) to my American husband (name) who entered to reside in the UK under the conditions of a spousal visa on (date) to live with me at the above address. His spousal visa states that he is to be absolutely denied ANY RECOURSE TO PUBLIC FUNDS. This letter is basically my proof of having informed you and I would appreciate it if you could tell me how this will affect my own claim to working and child tax credits now that I am married. I would greatly appreciate if you could make a record of having recieved this letter and forward it to someone in your department who has experience of handling such matters as the manager I spoke to seemed slightly confused as to how she should proceed. Thank you very much, yours sincerely, rah rah rah

Quite a quick response....

Thank you for your recent enquiry,
generally applicants are not entitled to tax credits whilst subject to immigration control except in a few limited circumstances. I can confirm that you are entitled to tax credits under the circumstances specified in the tax credits (immigration) regulations 2003. These regulations are made under section 42 of the tax credits act 2002. This is because only one of you is subject to immigration control.
As you and your husbnad are in reciept of tax credits because of the exceptions the home office should not consider this as recourse to public funds under paragraph 6B of their immigration rules when considering your application for leave to remain.
You will however be required to add your husband to your claim, please contact our helpline to do this.
To help us improve customer service please qoute our referance number and provide your telephone number in all correspondence


Very good, phoned helpline again and they EVENTUALLY sent out joint claim forms after two more calls asking for them.
This was the last communication they instigated.
Filled the claim forms in after having to wait a bit to recieve husbands notice of his new national insurance number and sent it recorded delivery with copies of all previous letters.

Waited. Waited. Called up.
Told there was a three week delay in processing call back when thats up.
Called after that was up and was told by a seemingly clueless woman that my husband was ineligible due to being subject to immigration control. So I told her about the first letter I had recieved and she said "Oh, well he must be then".
Waited some more and then called back. Husband apparently not matching with national insurance number.
No idea if they ever intended to inform me.
Phoned the national insurance numbers issueing office to be told that his details were correct and I then sent in a copy of the original notice of issue of his national insurance number, with all his details on it, again recorded delivery.
Told that they would refer it to an investigation department who would try to match him up. Phoned back after a few days.
They had not refered it and still had no record of his national insurance number. Said they would refer it. Waited a few more days. Exact same thing happened. Another week and it has at least been refered for matching and a decision but now the previous 3 deadlines for processing my claim have passed with no explanation, first three weeks, the 18th dec, then "merry frickin christmas!" the 25th Dec, "but if it's still not sorted out by then feel free to call back in the new year", then the 8th Jan, the next day it was suddenly the 11th feb for no apparent reason and then I was told that there was no deadline for the department it had been forwarded to and that this department had no contact details and that the helpline staff themselves could only contact them via email!
Told this by more than one indiviual so at least they all have their stories straight
After ensuring that I was at least a month ahead of my bills to prepare for any delays I can now thank tax credits for perhaps THE most threadbare Christmas I have yet to endure as I prepare for the possibility of waiting up to possibly 3 more months  "but it will be backdated!" and the fact that this mystery department that is apparently as accessible as frickin Narnia can not even issue me with a deadline is proving quite stressfull.
Also informed after ending my single claim that I had been overpaid for the fourth time in as many years. Bah humbug tax credits!
Have however found some stuff on the net that suggests there is someone who can help seeing as the actual helpline itself is so pants  http://www.adjudicatorsoffice.gov.uk/

Various people on the net have said this is the only real way to speak to someone who can review your claim and actually do something about it as the helpline advisors only have managers/team leaders whose powers are basically as limited as their own when it comes to actually getting anything more than a basic outline of your claim. The other options are wait indefinately or consider contacting your MP!
Anyway, hope this is worth it and that it may benefit someone about to engage in all this beauracratic b******s!   
STATE when you want your claim backdated from (first communication personally) and also the adjudicator can APPARENTLY provide compensation for costs, phone calls, going into default payments for household rent/bills after waiting an eternity and even stress caused etc. Not sure about dabbling in that myself but there it is anyway.......god knows how they expect disabled people and single mothers to survive in the meantime.

As I'm sure John L will come along and point out to you...Tax Credits are not public funds if only one person is subject to immigration control.

I know your frustration...it took them 5 months to process our initial claim and they just did it last month (november) by that time our daughter was 6 months old and we had no money left at all. I called them on a weekly basis (me the american) and it was only after my husband (the brit) started calling them and bugging them that action was finally taken. With no explination about what the delay was, nothing. We're seriously thinking of filing a compalint with a request for compensation...but we're afraid of rocking the boat too much since it's finally going.

I just wanted to let you know you're not the only one and I'm wondering if it's just a way that they hope if they ignore you long enough you'll just go away.

Good god, five months!!
Did they backdate it? I heard that they won't backdate it past 3 but I keep hoping I won't have to find out otherwise.
I know what you mean about rocking the boat, I've been told to contact that adjudicator but everything seems to take so long and I can already foresee it taking even longer if I drag yet another department into it. I think I'll give it until 11th and then get in touch with them. I say that now.........
Glad you finally managed to sort it out, having a new baby is hard enough as it is without worrying where the next meals coming from. I am genuinely outraged by this business, plus I know I'm actually one of the lucky ones as I at least have family willing to help financially support us (well, the begging of money and promising to repay on ever changing dates is starting to wear thin I sense) in the mean time, I have no idea how others manage. Thank you Gordan Brown for creating a system that basically takes money off of you before making you jump through hoops to get it back???
Visas, recessions.....our timing has sucked on this.

You need to write in and put a complaint in as if there are any problems in the near futrure with them saying you have been over paid then you have the complaints procedure in place already and you need to file this asap, and for anyone else who has  delayed payments do the same as soon as it becomes obvious that there is a problem the place that is so secret will write to you and then you will have an address to forward it to, and I did have the directors direct telephone number once (indys wife here) but that was a long time ago so its not much good now and do write and complain to your MP also they can be ok sometimes.

You can also go to the tax office (local) but do check this as it could well of changed and get emergency payments whilst your waiting you have to go in person and they are not nice places to be honest but when you need the money its better than being moneyless at XMAS.

So I wish you all a happy and wonderful new year and hope that you get these issues sorted asap.

Oh and they do do this on a regular basis mine was due to computer problems it killed the whole country when it happened there where thousands of people having this problem big time, and they do not care about your circumstances or if your kids do not have nappies and food it called tough as far as they are concerned.

Again have a good one and may the new year bring happiness and a bit easier a time of it for all of us.

Indy and Sonya

Just a few extra tax pieces of information on this specific subject:

1. If paid to the American spouse UK child benefit, child tax credit, working tax credit, council tax benefit etc are reportable as income on a US tax return.  They may not be tax to pay, depending on circumstances but they are reportable.

2. Those with children & UK employment income over roughly $8,500 a year may qualify for a refundable child credit by filing a Form 8812 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8812.pdf with their US tax return each year.  This means that in addition to UK credits/benefits you'd get a check from the US government as well!

3. If you did not receive the economic stimulus rebate in 2008 you can claim it on line 70 of the 2008 Form 1040 & get even more cash back from the US government if you qualify.

Good god, five months!!
Did they backdate it? I heard that they won't backdate it past 3 but I keep hoping I won't have to find out otherwise.

It took six months to get ours with no communication from them at all. On the plus side, it was backdated to when I started work which came in handy when we needed a deposit for our new place.

As I'm sure John L will come along and point out to you...Tax Credits are not public funds if only one person is subject to immigration control.

Exactly right, or more specifically, and in view of the fact that in respect of a couple living together, a Tax Credits claim must be made jointly, where one of the couple is a person not subject to immigration control (such as British Citizen) and the other one of the couple is a person subject to immigration control, such as a person with a time-limited visa with the "No recourse to Public Funds" restriction, then for Tax Credits purposes only they are both treated as not subject to immigration control. Accordingly it is totally OK for such a couple to jointly claim Tax Credits.

The relevant legislation is reg 3(2), Tax Credits (Immigration) Regulations 2003, as reinforced by para 6B of the Immigration Rules.

fingerscrossed, I think you have been very patient! I think you should have contacted with MP long ago! Even if your MP is away at the moment (even MPs are allowed holidays) there should be someone in their office able to help.

Good god, five months!!
Did they backdate it? I heard that they won't backdate it past 3 but I keep hoping I won't have to find out otherwise.
I know what you mean about rocking the boat, I've been told to contact that adjudicator but everything seems to take so long and I can already foresee it taking even longer if I drag yet another department into it. I think I'll give it until 11th and then get in touch with them. I say that now.........
Glad you finally managed to sort it out, having a new baby is hard enough as it is without worrying where the next meals coming from. I am genuinely outraged by this business, plus I know I'm actually one of the lucky ones as I at least have family willing to help financially support us (well, the begging of money and promising to repay on ever changing dates is starting to wear thin I sense) in the mean time, I have no idea how others manage. Thank you Gordan Brown for creating a system that basically takes money off of you before making you jump through hoops to get it back???
Visas, recessions.....our timing has sucked on this.

I know...I've been trying to find a job since August and no luck. Acutally I've looked at the paperwork that we filed (in June) and it was actually 6 months that it took them to process it. I got a phone call from them on July 28th to tell me that I didn't have an NI number (Duh, I put that in a letter to them as requested on the instructions for the application when my husband filled it out the previous month) and to wait for a letter telling me when my appointment was. Then we didn't hear anything until September 29th when my husband called to find out what was happening and they told him that our paperwork was in storage and they would need to call for it to take a look and initially blamed it on us not responding to their letter (which was never sent to us).

I consequently received 'the letter' the next week and then another letter from the Job Centre for my NI appointment the following week and I had the number within 2 weeks. I called them to give them the number and waited a week...nothing, Called again waitied a week...nothing. My DH got fed up and called them and it was finally processed (this was late november). It was backdated to my daughters birthday in May so we finally got what we were entitled to but still, lots of sleepless nights and stress and not just from the new baby either.

I tried to get a NI on my own but they wouldn't even schedule an appointment for me because I didn't have a job, or a job offer and when I told them it was for a tax credit application they said I'd have to wait for the tax credit office to make the appointment for me---and that was back in early July.

We're so thanful that it was finally done that the part of me that wants to complain is being quashed by the part that is afraid they'll just take it away when we really need it to punish us.

I used to work in a benefits office in California and we had processing time lines that we had to follow (60 days max to process a monetary assitance application) and so to me this was extremely frustrating to be on the other side of the table so to speak.

Right, well I phoned the adjudicator, got the complaints address (worth phoning the adjudicator first as the guy I spoke to said he had the correct complaints address as some ended up writing to the wrong departments after being befuddled by the maze of bullkak)
An achingly calm and rational letter of complaint is winging its way to them as I type this. Good lord it was hard containing the venom tsunami I have had  building up over this rubbish system. I also found a site that helps you find your local MP, heres the link for anyone interested yhttp://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:0XPwAV5s6VkJ:findyourmp.parliament.uk/commons/l/+FIND+YOUR+LOCAL+MP&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk
The MP is getting a letter next week even if the tax credits do manage to pull their finger out. And I'm going to get as much compensation as my lack of decency will allow. Im just ranting now........ran out of milk and it's time to phone mother cap in hand again....sigh.......

Ok, that link didnt work and I can't find an alternative so sorry. I'm going to go and curse a burly american man for having a too sexy southern drawl and access to the internet in 2006. At least he can't put me on hold and I know what his address is, bless his little cotton socks.

http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/commons/l/

Hope that helps!

Thats the one, thanks sweety! And thanks everyone else for putting up with my irritable ranty/ravey moments. Sanity savers!

Finally blew my top over the tax credits.

When J got his national insurance number (for now its just a piece of paper confirming its existance, the cards in the post apparently but I won't hold my breath) is said "You recently attended an interview after requesting a national insurance number and we can now confirm that your national insurance number is....."
Only he hadn't attended an interview and an appointment had never been offered.
After phoning the number we were told that if he had the letter then it didn't matter and that was still his national insurance number.

After writing the letter of complaint I phoned and asked for an "escallate" (possibly excellerate) referal to be put on my claim (I asked for this after finding something about it on the internet, when I phoned I made it sound as though another department (tax office) had instructed me to ask for it and the woman on the end of the phone finally casually admitted that "Oh yes, your claim is very  over due isn't it?") I was then told that she could see no problems with his number being matched and that a manager would call and she would put the referral  on.
Manager never called.
After the weekend I was again being told by tax credits J still wasn't tying in to that number we phoned the number on the national insurance letter again.

A woman informed us that she  couldn't confirm that these were his details    over the phone and that he would have to take the matter up with another department on the isle of wight?!?
So we were transferred, waited for ages, got through to a woman who said she had no idea why we had been put through to her and she told us that we should just call the other woman back.
Called and spoke to someone else who said that we may have to go into the job centre itself with ID and that we should make sure that his number was "activated" and that tax credit staff were told to keep you running in circles and that they may say that you don't match your number because it can take up to 8 weeks for the number to enter their system.
But, on the off chance that there really was a problem we may have to apply for a new number and thus a new tax credits claim.

Cue mushroom cloud......followed by crying and cursing.
I finished my essentially useless rant, hung up, grabbed J and the kids and then threw a fit in the job centre. Narrowly avoided being escorted out but eventually they told me that the number was fine and so on to the tax office. Demanded an interim payment and was told to come back tommorow for an emergency appointment and was then breezily told that "We will give tax credits a call and sort this out for you"

Going back in tommorow with ten tons of ID and have since phoned tax credits again and just refused to get off of the phone until I spoke to a manager (They exist!) who said that the claim had been processed and that they were now just waiting to see what the award was.Ready to give up.

So frustrated. 

My previously well maintained bank account is now in the red and I'm avoiding calls from my credit  card. All of my default/arrears letters are in a nice little pile and after waving them about in the tax office tommorow I will be forwarding them and a bitter letter to the adjudicator demanding that I am reimbursed. I've contemplated demanding a letter acknowledging their responsibility in helping to ruin my standing with my bank but thought that might be a tad OTT. I guess I will see how tommorow goes......

Go to your tax office as soon as the first date given for your application to be processed has passed no matter what the useless sods on the helpline tell you the problem is!
Tell them about the delay and say you want an interim payment.

THEY MAKE IT UP!

Staff there have a direct line to Narnia and after showing them passports, visas, proof of address etc the money is now in the bank, backdated too.

fingerscrossed, glad to hear that you have got this sorted. But annoyed that you had to go to the bother of going along in person to give them the proverbial kick up the butt!