19 December 2012

Tax Credits - Missing Payments of Working Tax Credit

Some people may have missed out on payments of Working Tax Credit (WTC) that they were due because of the way HMRC operated their backdating rules prior to April 2010. People who claimed WTC only (ie with no children on their tax credit claim) did not have their claims automatically backdated for the allowable period unless they specifically asked for it – but HMRC did not tell them they could ask for it!

LITRG highlighted the problem in 2009 and thanks to their intervention, HMRC agreed to change some of their published information so that from April 2010 onwards, claimants could find out about backdating from the tax credit notes.

But before that date, many claimants did not know they could ask for their claim to be backdated and so any payments just ran from the date HMRC received their claim. HMRC have stated they will not automatically revisit these older claims to put them right but they have agreed to do so if the claimant writes to them and asks for backdating.

There is a full article on this subject on the LITRG website, with a guide which explains who has missed out.

If you think you or one of your clients are affected by this, fill in the form and send it off to HMRC so they can check the claim and make sure any payments due are made.