My thanks to a loyal reader who gave me permission to publish a letter that she sent to:
- Dan Rogerson
- David Cameron
- Nick Clegg
- Ed Miliband
- Margaret Hodge
- David Gauke
- Lin Homer (e-mail)
- The Adjudicator
- Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
She won a tribunal against HMRC regarding child benefits and tax credits. However, she is still waiting for HMRC to "put things right" and 13 months after raising the matter with the Adjudicator is still waiting for a result; as the Adjudicator's Office is overwhelmed with casework.
To add insult to injury, having emailed Cameron two weeks ago about the situation, her email was answered by HMRC telling her to raise the matter with the Adjudicator.
Here is the text of her letter, with locations edited out in order to protect her identity.
"Just over 3 years ago my daughter and I fled the controlling clutches of her Police Sergeant father in **** to the edge of *******.
Together
with HMRC, he had made life so difficult for us we had no choice other
to leave our family home and start a new life hundreds of miles away
where the only person I knew was my father. 3 years later and with my
daughter now 6 years old life is very pleasant and the battles between
her father and me have been resolved, but not without years of
heartache, distress, solicitors and tribunals caused by my daughter’s
father and the actions of HMRC.
I
am writing this letter because, despite having unfinished business with
HMRC in waiting for their apology, it has become clear that I am not
the only person to have part of my life destroyed. Because HMRC is
attempting to cost cut and in doing so is destroying families and
driving them to despair, with their decisions made wholly to save money.
The
250 mile move has led me to another mother suffering the same at the
hands of her controlling police officer ex partner in ****. HMRC’s
award of Child Benefit and Tax credits to the high earning officer, over
the part time minimum wage mother, is confirmation of my suspicions
that this is a cost saving exercise for HMRC. I battled HMRC for over 2
years to prove they were wrong in their decision, which they made on
this basis.
A
tribunal took 5 minutes to agree with me WHILST THE HRMC REPRESENTATIVE
AGREED WITH THE JUDGE MUMBLING ‘I’M NOT SURE WHY WE’RE HERE!!!!!’ Hell
and my life destroyed, leaving our friends and family, the village I
grew up in, our home (previously MY grandparents), filling each day with
letters and evidence gathering day after day for 2 years whilst
struggling as a single mother, ink, paper, postage, photocopying,
telephone calls mounting on my credit card bill, overdraft, interest,
frustrated telephone calls to a call centre, being misinformed by HMRC
staff, constantly being told that my call couldn’t be escalated to any
senior person, hours trying to entertain my 3 year old daughter whilst
dealing with paperwork and making phone calls, time and money lost in
travelling to tribunals, my daughter’s first trick or treating missed,
the list goes on………to hear those sorry words from HRMC ‘I’m not sure why
we’re here’. I want to scream as I write this remembering the torture
and pain I was going through.
The
13 months which have passed since my complaint was initiated with the
adjudicator has given me nothing other than telephone calls with the
adjudicator telling me that they are so inundated with complaints they
have no idea when mine can be investigated. This needs to be resolved
and is a matter of public concern. The adjudicator cannot cope with the
volume of complaints.
Nearly
two 2 years later, and having won my tribunal against HMRC, they should
have put things right as they advocate in their ‘Putting Things Right’
leaflet. Seeing my whole situation playing out in the new town I have
moved to, with another set of parents shows I am not a ‘one off’. HMRC
have learnt nothing and continue to make things wrong, far from putting
things right. Somebody needs to take control of this situation.
My
e-mail to 10 Downing Street 2 weeks ago, highlighting the waiting time
for the adjudicator, was UNBELIEVABLY responded to by HMRC telling me
that I needed to direct my enquiry to the adjudicator. What an ABSOLUTE
joke and a course of action which I am utterly disgusted with. Mr
Cameron you have let me down and there are many more people suffering
too whist this is being ignored.
Can somebody please help us?"
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Ken - there's still a geographical location in the 4th para of the letter which could identify this lady.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up, have now corrected it.
DeleteInstitutional incompetence, bereft of morals and leadership with a total lack of adherence to legislation, and that is just what is visible from the outside. If you believe that things are bad you should see what it is like on the inside.
ReplyDeleteThose named at the head of the OP are well aware of the overall situation that is HMRC and have chosen to do very little about it, why?
Roll back in time to the appointment of successive incompetents to head the department, Hartnett and Homer, if you wished to ensure failure you could not have chosen better than this pair given their track records.
Combine that with appointments indirectly connected to the very areas giving the department and the Treasury its greatest headaches namely tax avoidance and tax evasion along with tax havens and you begin to get the picture.
The PAC will huff and puff but remains ineffective and as for the rest of the safety net, the holes are too big to catch anything.
We can rest assured that hypocrite Hodge will do nothing unless there is some publicity in it for her.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, you're absolutely right. I received an acknowledgment letter and have heard nothing since from the Hodge office; we're now 4 months on. Downing Street and Clegg's office both wrote and pointed me in the direction of the Adjudicator. Nothing from Miliband's office and STILL waiting for the Adjudicator to investigate. My poor friend going through the same now has 2 ex's, both police officers, going for her Child Benefit and Tax credits (both over the earning threshold to benefit from either!!).....yes she should have learnt from her mistake first time round but hindsight is a wonderful thing! Makes you wonder whether the Police actually have some advisory service which recommend they do this?!?! Or are some of them so controlling, devious and spiteful that they think to do this all by themselves?!?!
DeleteThis is what happens wen the coalition sacks staff
ReplyDeleteCan this lady sue HMRC on a similar basis to the precedent set today by someone who has sued the Metropolitan Police and been awarded damages?
ReplyDeleteThe judge said, according to BBC R4, that under the Human Rights Act a person is entitled to expect the police to mount a timely and efficient investigation.
Under this Act, a person is certainly entitled to respect for his/her family life.
Is HMRC immune from the laws that apply to the police? ... well, I do wonder.
Don't hold your breath folks.
ReplyDeleteHMRC are supposed to take seriously any allegation of criminal law breaking made internally by its staff against e.g. management. The investigation should be made by its Internal Audit/Governance Team and where alledging e.g. criminal behaviour or gross misconduct must be referred to IPCC.
So, respect let alone immune from laws? They don't care about the laws, no-one from outside will do what should be done. The situation will remain unchanged until a suitable cacophony of whistles is blown and heard!
Should you wish to begin to understand how bad things might be within HMRC Google "mathew tvrdon hmrc" and read a sad tale.
The events were widely reported in the national media but despite calls for an enquiry from politicians and the media alike - nothing has transpired.