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Disputing RTI records
Client’s HB is being reduced by £50/month from earnings from an employer she stopped working for in 2013. Revenues and Benefits are advising that this information has been received via RTI. We have been advised that we must take it up with HMRC to get this corrected. However a brief google leaves me non-the-wiser of how to do this. The results all seem to concern employers requesting corrections rather than employees.
Any suggestions? Should a P45 from the employer be sufficient to allow Revs and Bens to draw the conclusion that the RTI records are in error and remove the income. Or are we condemned to trying to deal with HMRC?
Bearing in mind the overarching principle of HB evidence gathering - that the claimant must provide what is reasonably required of him/her - it is reasonable that the claimant should provide something to reassure the Council that she no longer works for that employer: P45, short letter confirming that to be the case. But it is not the claimant’s responsibility to correct mistakes in third party records over which she has no control.
The burden of taking the initiative shifts back and forth in cases like this. In the first instance it is perfectly reasonable for the Council to rely on HMRC data unless and until they have reason to think it is incorrect. So the burden then shifts to the claimant to give them a good reason to think that. A letter from the former employer or a P45 would emphatically shift the burden back onto the Council to show that the claimant and employer are lying/colluding and the RTI is correct. It would be completely unreasonable at that stage for the Council to stand by RTI in defiance of evidence to the contrary - if there is strong reason to believe RTI is wrong the Council should disregard it, not force the claimant to get it corrected.
In total agreement with HB Anorak, but just a question, was there an existing claim prior to 2013?
In total agreement with HB Anorak, but just a question, was there an existing claim prior to 2013?
Thank you HB Anorak for your helpful response.
Chacha the simple answer to your question is yes, client has been claiming HB since before 2013. The complicating factor to this answer is that the HB used to be pass-ported off her Income Support, and she has been held to not be entitled to this benefit (due to LTAHW decision, confirmed by tribunal). So at present there is a big gap in her HB entitlement and overpayment which we are trying to fill with reassessment/underlying entitlement calculation. The period in question includes 2013.