My sympathies to Sharron Sheridan, a self-employed mother, who has had a wee bit of a hard time claiming tax credits.
In fact, according to the Mail, she has been left on the breadline after waiting five and a half months for her tax credits claim to be processed.
For why?
Seemingly HMRC is of the view that she is dead.
When speaking to an HMRC advisor, Ms Sheridan was told that the deceased box was ticked but no date of death had been entered.
An HMRC spokesman said:
'We do not comment on identifiable tax credits claimants.HMRC already has form on this type of cock up, eg in 2015 HMRC was of the view that Peter Moore was dead.
'When we make an error we apologise and put things right, reinstating the award at the earliest opportunity and backdating the payments if appropriate."
Tax does have to be taxing.
Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations
Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.
Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.
However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.
What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?
Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.
To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance
HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"
Absolutely shocking and disgusting. But HMRC never ever seem to be held accountable for major errors like this. At the very least this lady should get an unreserved face-to-face apology directly from the senior management, as they are ultimately responsible for the disgraceful way the department is totally mismanaged which leads to these kind of problems and places untold emotional strain on hard working members of the public.
ReplyDeleteThis is the same HMRC which fails to answer a quarter of all phone calls. No other business could be run like that. Jon Thompson the CEO of HMRC has boldly promised to improve their shoddy service - anyone think he will really achieve this?
ReplyDeleteHMRC is not particularly interested in its "customers" it's not like they can take their "business" elsewhere is it? They can't choose a competitor. It has other priorities. Reducing it's estate by closing 117 offices and dismissing several thousand trained, experienced staff. It has chosen to invest heavily in public relations with hundreds of propaganda writers trained at the Alistair Campbell college of corporate communications busily manufacturing copy telling us everything is wonderful. it would make Joseph Goebbels blush.
ReplyDeleteIf you could chose which tax authority you wanted to pay your tax to, any company run like this PUBLIC SERVICE would be out of business pretty soon. If they don't care about their own staff, why should they care about the taxpayers who have no choice but to deal with them. It's a complete shambles from top to, well, top.
DeleteYou are very right. The fact is HMRC should be able to provide a decent service to the public given their resources, but they do not care about staff or taxpayers who pay for the service and only care about the careers of the senior leadership team. As you say a shambles from top to top.
DeleteI seem to keep having to point this out, but the information as to whether someone has died or not most often comes from the DWP's systems and is passed over to HMRC's with no procedure for confirming it. HMRC then has to wait for the DWP to admit to ballsing it up and correcting it. This, as you might guess, is not something the dopes at DWP like doing, which usually explains the delay.
ReplyDeleteand people its only going to get worse as many thousands of experienced staff are replaced by new staff who will be trained by reading manuals as there will be too few staff left to train them too - but wait -we all love a smaller public sector right?
ReplyDeleteWe need efficient public services designed to meet the needs of the public. In the case of HMRC's so-called 'service' it will only continue to decline, and therefore not meet the public's needs, while the senior management keep making such poor decisions. The easiest process for quickly stopping the further decline in the service provided would be to retain experienced & skilled staff, and acknowledge & address the bullying culture that causes so many problems.
ReplyDeleteAnd as the post piles higher and higher...how do they address the problem ? Correct...they drag us away from our desks for another "voluntary" workshop,one of many to celebrate made up successes.....you couldn't make this shit up !!! Instead of us tackling the problem head on with more staff they divert us to the core business which is now anything other than tax collecting...what a joke !!!
DeleteThose who enthusiastically embrace the needs of the internal audience get treated very well within HMRC. Those who work hard to serve the needs of businesses and the general public get treated disgracefully and are targeted by bullying management. As a result it can be no surprise that the service to the public is shocking and that tax collection is only thought of in the odd moment between the 'celebrations' and the endless rounds of pointless meetings.
ReplyDeleteIt's all like a house of straw built on sand. Ready to collapse at any time. Propped up by propoganda and distorted performance statistics which nobody can unravel. The National Audit Office and public accounts committee only scratch at the surface.
ReplyDeleteCriminal cases = innocent until proved guilty
ReplyDeleteBULLSHIT...... and even when proved innocent you only get 30% of your costs back!!
So it costs You 70% of your unlawfully applied costs for the privilege of being innocent.
FUCKING ARSEHOLES..... CALL THAT JUSTICE.
Another govt revenue generation scheme.
And we are dumb enough to put up with it.
this country is so fucked up!!