Two months ago I faxed to TCO a combined authority for Tax Credits and Child Benefit. Frank called me back and said authority was on the system for both. Now the Child Benefit Unit are saying the authority is not showing on their system, and in any event they only accept original signed authorisations by post to Washington (ie faxed not accepted). Anybody else had similar problems?

Yes!!!!!!!

Frank appears to do his bit and then it never works for me at Child Benefit end. I have been told what you have been told when I have rang on the 0845 302 1444 number - i.e. to call centres. You may already know but you can fax Child Benefit authority to 0191 225 1254. This should mean that it is put on the system but doesn't seem to get put on call centres system. I have faxed authority to that number and asked for a call back which sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't.

It is a confused mess and no one seems sure of the system.

Tony

Thanks Tony. I wasn't aware of the fax number at Washington for authorisations. I'll use that as well in future.

Brian

Brian, your posting has nudged us into finally trying to do something about the problem. We are trying to take it up with HMRC. I will let you know the outcome.
Tony

Tony

Don't forget to tell the rest of us the outcome as well.

What are you doing using rightsnet at 8.25 in the morning? Did the excitement of Wolves winning keep you awake?

CC

I bunged in a complaint recently re this issue. CB responded to the effect that TC689's do get logged, but only where the client has a live CB claim. If there is no CB in payment there's no-where to log it so it doesn't work. Allegedly. I will say, though, that the last few times I've faxed a TC689 the CB office has actually rung me (without being prompted). I nearly dropped the phone the first time (was dying to tell them I couldn't discuss the case as we had no valid authority...)

You are having more luck than I am. I haven't been called back after the last couple that I have sent despite specifically asking to be.

There is a real problem when there is no current award. I am often dealing with situations where children are moving families, often to grandparents, and there is no current award. They are desperate for money and I am trying to speed up claim. It is ludicrous that it is so difficult/impossible to discuss it with them.

Tony

I faxed an authorisation to Washington on Monday, asked for somebody to call me back, heard nothing. Visited the client at home on another matter, called the CB help line. Client has 8 children but only gets CB for 6, we believe there may be a competing claim for the other two. The help line confirmed that client has a claim for 8 and is being paid for 6, but said they cannot tell from their system which children are/are not being paid for. I was told it was not possible to do a hand off to anybody who would know that information, even with authorisation. How am I supposed to gather evidence on who has responsibility for the disputed children if I cannot find out which ones they are, said I. I don't know, said she.

Does anybody have any sort of reps line number to Washington?

Just had a conversation with a lovely lady at CBU, who told me that they only accept authorisations on the HMRC combined TC/CB form (the number of which escapes me), and that they do not accept them by fax, only originals by post. However if you fax the authoristaion to Frank at TCO he will fax it to CBU and then they will accept it. I am inclined to believe her, and it certainly sounds daft enough to be true.

The number for reps must be a myth...although i at least did find myself in a queue by phoning the Child Benefit office on 0161 210 3086 and it was answered after around 5 minutes.

There's also a website for finding alternative numbers to 0845's...it's www.saynoto0870.com/

I asked Frank about this and he got someone from the CBO to call me. I was told that the authorisation that goes to the CBO via Frank only gets logged onto claimant's records once the claim is in payment so any calls to the call centre before that happens will not be successful because the authorisation will not show. I did point out the obvious problems when you are dealing with long delays in processing claims but nothing has changed yet. I did however recently find that that a complaint with our own agency authorisation form attached did generate a response in three days and a direct telephone number.

We did take the whole issue up with HMRC and I had what I thought, naively I accept, was a helpful discussion with someone who appeared to be in a position to look into it and seemed interested in the problem. She never got back to me and has not responded to my recent attempt at contact. However, I will try her again and see whether we get anywhere.

From our experience the main problems seemed to be ensuring that the authority got put on the system at CBO once Frank had sent it on and then it being recognised by the call centres when we phone to discuss the matter. As you say Jacky, there is a problem with the authority being recognised before there has been an award - and for me a lot of the cases I pursue are trying to encourage awards to be made and find out what is happening when children move between families. This was one of the things we were trying to get them to look into.

I have still been finding that call backs are very hit and miss.

I will follow up my previous contact and post as soon as I know anything.

Tony

Same as the above. Also- why in hell are CB claims taking so long to be processed? We've had a series of clients who have been waiting 4+ months. The knock-on effect on TC claims (yes, I know TC can be paid before CB goes into payment but I've given up wasting my breath in trying to persuade TCO to do it), IS claims (ditto) and SSMG claims is significant. We've just contacted our local MPs about it (and the deplorable TC689 debacle). Rant, rant, rant...

Absolutely!!!!!!!!!

I had just closed a file before I read your posting where someone was granted a residence order in July for a child she had been fostering and promptly claimed CB and CTC. The CB was awarded on 18th Nov <4 months> and still waiting for CTC as there has now been a 'technical problem' with activating her claim and they will have to instigate manual payments which take 2-3 weeks from referral apparently, so we now have to wait until 19th Dec to see whether that has worked.

My impression is that the processing time for claims, certainly where children are moving between households or their status changes as above, has slowly increased over the past 12 months from 8 weeks I was being told earlier in the year to, as you say, 4 months or more.

Tony

Re my message above - the three day response to my complaint to the CBO has now resulted in full payment of benefit another three days later - complaint is still being dealt with - so this is maybe the way to go
Jacky

Did you get anywhere Tony?

Sue

Not yet I'm afraid and I haven't had chance to follow it up properly - there was no response from the person i was dealing with before, but I will chase it up again and then consider change of approach - I will let you know what happens

Tony

Sue

I have had a conversation this morning with someone at HMRC who has been looking into the problems of advisor contact with Child Benefit. I ran the problems through with her again - general difficulties of getting call centres to recognise authority; authority system failures; problem when undecided initial claim; rival claims; call backs; and all the associated delays.

She advised me that the whole issue was under consideration at Director level and that some resolution might be expected by the end of February. One of the things under consideration is an advisors line with a view to it being aimed at difficult/complex/intractable cases. I said this would be helpful but we needed an efficient workable system for relatively mundane enquiries too.

She said that pressure has been building generally, particularly following formal complaints.

She promised to let me have details of the new arrangements once they have been agreed. I will share this as soon as I receive it, although I assume there will be some sort of official announcement.

Tony

Thanks for letting us know Tony,
Not before time eh! It drives me nuts.

I'm now even having problems with consent for TCO. They're telling me if the TC689 is sent in with a claim form it doesn't get put onto the system. I just hope this was a blip.

I don't really have the problem you have described as I don't usually send claim forms from here. They go from our main office. However, could you not fax the authority if you need to, or even when you send the claim, or if it's done at this stage are they unable to put it on if there is no existing information for the person? I know it should be easier than this but...........

Tony