Child Tax Credits

Does anybody understand how tax credits work when you have to stop a joint claim and start a single claim.
I notified them of the changes in September 2007 and was surprised when they terminated the claim and started a new one then took 5 months to get the new claim up and running.
Now I am getting harrassed by endless notifications for the old claim for part of 2007 and the new claim for the remainder of 2007/08.
They appeared to have applied an annual figure for the joint 5 month claim then another annual figure for the single 7 month claim. But they can't even get the same annual figure correct for two claims.
I assume what has happened is that can't accept that there are 2 claims for the same person, so the write for the first claim and I give them an estimated figure for the year then they write for the second claim, by now I have a more up to date figure, and I give them that.
I phoned them 2 weeks ago because they wrote with an estimated figure and they said that they had a final figure from me. I got another statement from them yesterday and it is complete fiction.
How can I insist that despite this being 2 claims that I am the same person with the same income for the year? By the way, the ex had no income so has no affect on the claim.

I am surprised to hear that they took 5 months to sort your single claim out. They cancelled my joint claim and set up my single claim within a few weeks, as seems to be the consensus.

I did have trouble with them trying to sort the joint claim both at the time and when they sent the end of year final award notice. My ex had not given them any information either about stopping the joint claim nor his money to date of joint claim ending. They kept chasing me for this figure and threatened to take over £800 from me as he no longer qualifies unless they could finalise that joint claim. I could not give them his forwarding address because of data protection either. I had to continually make phone calls to Tax Credits before they accepted that he was the person that needed to give them the information.

I would suggest that you ring them again and ask to speak to a supervisor and that you want an address to write to so that you can state everything in black and white and that you require a reply within 14 days.

I have had dealings with them right from the day Tax Credits came into force. Put it in writing Kevin so that it gets dealt with by one person and actioned, they can't ignore it then.

Hope this helps.

xx Sarah xx

I agree with you about putting it in black and white as you have something to go on as I distrust the call centres. Not that I think that they are dishonest, just that there is no audit trail.
I have now written to them confriming the annual salary for 2007/08 and pointing out this should apply to both claims, just in case they were unaware that there 2 of them.
The long delay in getting the single claim set up was due to in between notifying them on the phone and getting the claim form 4 weeks later I had become unemployed.
They then couldn't deal with the fact that I wasn't employed. Oh and remember the DWP losing a cd load of peoples data. As a result they tightened up their security and as I was in mid claim I failed the security test and they refused to talk to me, which was nice of them I thought. Kept asking me for my partner's name and I said that I didn't have a partner. Well I wouldn't would I as I was making a single claim.

Lets hope with it all clearly detailed in black and white that they can actually sort it out sooner rather than later.

xx Sarah xx

I had similar problems- and had to make loadsa calls. Keep a record-then drfo put it in writing to make an official complainy- I gave them a 2 week timescale and then ask for compensation for your wasted time and calls. I received £20 which I was quite happy with. I prooved they did make an error in their calculation and they had to write off some of my over payment so its worth persisiting
Good luck.