YOU CAN WIN !

by Rachel

I've been fighting HMRC Tax Credits for aprox 2 yrs. Thats 2 yrs of hell, sleepless nights, fighting with my husband, and sliding down the slippery slope of depression.

But all of that was worthwhile as yesterday, the 21st October 2008, I received a call at 13.45pm, from HMRC Tax Credits overpayment investigator and he told me that the error's were made by their own staff, and we are having the overpayment of £6,495 written off, due to the sheer mass of error's made by HMRC.

Basically they were sending letters to our old address about the joint claim, but as we did not respond they discarded the new joint claim, the thing is we were not living at the address they were sending these letters to so could not have reasonably known their was a problem. Also the incompetent HMRC had been phoning my husbands old mobile number, then wondered why he didn't answer it, by golly these HMRC guys are smart (NOT).

The thing is they had our new address, they were sending paperwork and letters to us regarding the overpayment since December 2006, and award notices from June 2006, and they all seemed fine and up to date, yet they still couldn't do their job correctly.

I never thought the day would come that HMRC would do the right thing and free an innocent family of a wrongfully placed debt, I was in so much shock my hubby had to take me down to the local for a relaxing beverage. I mentioned to the investigator (Andy) that I wanted proof of the debt being written off in writing, I will never trust HMRC ever again.

I eagerly await this letter, so I can properly celebrate this achievement, until then I'm trying not to get excited. I'm so tired though, the stress wears you out big time. My advice to you all is never give up, keep pestering them daily, email the HM TREASURY and THE COMMONS. Ring them too - really get under their skin. The quieter you are the less you will achieve in this game, if you're innocent and know it, then fight. I spent hours Monday ringing the HM Treasury, and The Commons and even the Adjudicators, trying to talk to someone with power, but these people just don't want to talk to the little people. But still ring their offices and make yourself heard.

My local MP David Laws is a total god send, he actually cares for us victims, and fights hard to help you get justice. I owe him a bottle of bubbly for his help. I recommend you talk to your MP, they are really good at getting your voice heard, it does take time to get there so be patient. If you're honest, and in the right, keep fighting. Get copies of your files from HMRC's Data Protection Unit, everything you have sent to HMRC will be within these files, claims, letters, phone records.

Everything you need to clear your good names.

Meanwhile folks please add your true life HMRC nightmare stories to this blog, Show the world what these HMRC Tax Credits staff will stoop to.

Help us in this fight, a fight for Amnesty for all of HMRC's genuine overpayments victims.

www.TaxCC.org