Hi,

Not sure if anyone else has had a similar problem to this, or if I am just unlucky.

I checked a new client's 08/09 award and it stated that she had estimated her 08/09 income as £1 less than the 07/08 figure that she provided when completing her Annual Declaration (by phone). Client says she didn't have any intention to do this. Circumstances are that she receives CA and partner is on a permanent contract at NMW, so quite obviously income will increase year-on-year, all other things being equal.

Since then I have twice been asked to estimate 08/09 income when completing Annual Declarations by phone. There is no way to do this on paper S17s, which apparently cause a 'system estimate' to be generated.

This isn't everyone at TCO, other advisers have just renewed the claim and not even mentioned the issue. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced similar problems. I have let CPAG in Scotland know already, and written requesting that my first client's claim be assessed on previous year income (as I had previously thought to be normal). In the meantime, me and one of the more competant advisers at TCO agreed that the only way to prevent an overpayment accruing is to overestimate the 08/09 income. Downside to this is that the client has less money until renewing her claim next year.

Any other suggestions/comments would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Jon

When doing the renewal, they provide their py income
The CY award will be based on this py figure

An advisor will ask for an estimated cy income, the reason is if they are to receive less income ie maybe returning after maternity leave at less hours and less income then the cy award will be based on the lower income (in this case they will have to sign and return the award made on a lower income than py , )

They may know they have a promotion coming up and income will be considrably more and wish to provide a higher estimate,avoiding a potential over payment on the provisional award 09/10, in which case the cy award will still be based on the lower py income, but next award provisional payments would be based on the higher estimate thus preventing a potential overpayment

The only reason for this is to prevent any overpayment of provisional payments made between 06-04-2009 and completion of their annual declaration ie 31-07-2009
If they are not asked,or do not provide, then the cy income is automatically increased by an estimated inflation figure , so as hopefully not to cause an overpayment of provisional award payments

I hope this made things clear

John