I am having a lot of difficulty getting through to the Child Benefit Centre in Washington these days. I have a reps number but it is constantly engaged so presume it this is out of date.

If anyone has a more up to date reps number I would appreciate it if they would email me it.

Thanks

OK so no reply to my request. Now I have a related question which hopefuly someone can help with.

What exactly do you have to do to be registered as an intermediary with Child Benefit? For Tax Credits we send the appropriate form by fax and then quite quickly receive a tel call saying we are on the system.

Does anyone know of a similar system for Child Benefit?

Cheers

have a look here - sounds like you need Frank. : )

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=107&topic_id=1464&mesg_id=1464&page=

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, Frank has not been able to help this time. He has said he faxed off my forms to CB but they are not appearing on the system for some reason. I tried three times to get registered for the same client by fax. Now I have sent an original form (not allowed to send a copy for security reason!) through the post but have been told it could take weeks to be put on the system.

Very infuriating all this. Suggestions welcome. Suggestions on the old thread have not proved fruitful.

Had to contact CB myself last week - just rang 0845 302 1444 and got through straight away. Good luck!!!

Hi,
I have been having the same problem. I posted the authorisation for one client three times over 2 months. The CB office claimed that they never received it, although they did seem to receive other documents sent in the same envelope.

Eventually I had to refer the client to the MP, and the matter was immediately resolved.

I wrote to the CB office complaining that they had failed to record, or acknowledge the authority and got back a standard letter saying that they would not discuss the matter with me because I do not have authority! I have posted it four times now.

The last letter made me so angry I had to put it away in a drawer – I can feel my blood starting to boil again now!

Thanks for that Jane,

I have to say that despite me being annoyed with all this I had to laugh at your story - it is all so ridiculous.

Anyway, I dug further into this and found Aileen Bennet at the Correspondance Section of CB. She has now moved office and can be reached on 0191 2251056. She is the manager of the office which Frank from Tax Credits sends his fax to when you want to be on the CB system as intermediary. I would suggest ringing her if you have problems as she seems helpful.

But - and this is the big problem - if the case is a new claim where there has not been a decision made, then there is no way that the call centres can see you registered as an intermediary. Apparently the computer system is not geared up to do this for some reason and this is being looked into. Once the claim is live then the call centre staff should be able to see you are an intermediary.

Ms Bennet said that when we fax an intermediary form through (via Frank) for an undecided new claim then we should get a call back from a member of staff who is has the paper case so they can assist us.

Cheers