my client's partner left her, she reported this to the tax credit office, they opened a new single claim and sent a declaration to close the joint claim which of course she couldn't get her husband to sign because he had left her, now they say there's a year's overpayment because he didn't sign the declaration...
is there anything we can do. i'm too aghast at the TCO in general to get my head around this. 9they also rejected a 'copy' (which was actually the orignal) authority on this one as per the other thread)

why do we come into work on friday mornings?

"why do we come into work on friday mornings?"

Could it be to "enjoy" having a robust dispute on the phone with one of the TCO functionaries? That is what happened to me this morning.

To be fair, I generally find the people I talk to at TCO are trying their best and they can be really helpful. It's just that sometimes you come across a defensive negative attitude which seems to ignore that they are there to try & help their "customers".

Sorry! Rant over. And I can't answer your question!

I find that if all else fails with the tax credit office after disputing the overpayment is to go through the complaints process and then take to the Adjudicator - takes ages but at least you get the fairest outcome possible.

Yes it can help, although I have had a case fairly recently where Adjudicator in effect simply rubber stamped TCO decision & we had to go to the Parl. Ombudsman to get a correct decision.

To refer back to my earlier quote, I'm delighted to say that after the robust discussion I mentioned we got it referred to a Manager & it has now been largely resolved. As a result the client has received over £18K backpayment. There were fulsome apologies from the Manager over the way the case had been dealt with (or not dealt with!).