Date of CTC claim

Cl. took over the care of grandchild in Jan 2018, tried to claim CTC but was told to wait for a while as child’s mother was still claiming CTC. Cl was therefore dissuaded from making a competing claim even though this had a reasonable prospect of success.
Cl. did make a claim for CB and was awarded it.

In early May 2018 cl. rang again and HMRC said that a claim form would be sent out. It didn’t arrive despite enquiries being made about where it had got to. In mid June cl called again and was told that they could not claim CTC as the area had gone to Full Service UC in early June. Cl has too much capital for UC but , on taxable income grounds, would have qualified for at least some CTC

I understand that Reg. 5 of the Tax Credits Claims regs says that a claim is only made when HMRC get a properly completed claim form but HMRC, even after being told that the form had not arrived, failed to issue a replacement form which obviously precludes this happening.

Before the advent of UC I imagine that there would have been extra backdating if HMRC admitted that they had fallen short in sending out the forms but the present situation the cl is unable to even start the claim and has been significantly disadvantaged through no fault of their own.

It’s obviously a case for a complaint as HMRC didn’t seem to have sent another form even when told that the first one hadn’t arrived and seem to have dissuaded cl. from making a competing claim but given the circumstances I was wondering about any legal basis for the date of claim being the date when the cl. rang for the form, in effect notifying HMRC of an intent to claim.

Any thoughts or experiences gratefully received.

Hi Pete

All I can suggest is trying to persuade HMRC that the phone calls in May / June should have been treated as a claim made under Reg 5(2)(b) in such other manner as the Board may decide having regard to all the circumstances. This may have some chance of success if it emerges that they did not follow the correct procedure within 3 weeks of UC full service date - when they should have taken the claim by phone. See https://cpag-mail.org.uk/5MI-5FI75-9CL4WEK95/cr.aspx#scot-tc-while-can

Mark

Thanks for that, that is the line I was thinking of taking, I was going to suggest it as a remedy in the complaint I am writing.