Tax Credit TC1180A letter received (no renewal unless you get back to us) and not responded to in time - help.

Hi all

I haven’t seen a TC1180A form before; sent to claimant in Feb 2020, says to the claimant that she needed to respond to renew by 31/3/20 otherwise her tax credits wont be renewed because previous years showed she isn’t getting any payments due to good income and a large overpayment.

She was away working at the time (self-employed), then returned in March due to Covid-19 and overlooked it due to stress and being a bit scatty quite frankly.  She continues to work as self-employed but income massively reduced.

She only contacted tax credits on 13/5/20.  They were not clear with her what her appeal rights may be nor what she can do to challenge the decision.

The letter does not outline this either and I cant find any information in the usual resources.

Does anyone know where I can find this info?  She needs to continue her TC claim and reduce the TC debt.

TC debts not suspended currently unlike DWP debt recovery as far as I can see?  What would the advice be on that now?

EKS

Hi EKS
This sounds like HMRC’s practice of withdrawing nil awards (CPAG 20/21 handbook p1502) unless the claimant responds to say they want their claim to continue, which may now have caused problems due to coronavirus and reduced income. It is legislated for under the Tax Credits (Claims & Notifications) Regs, Reg 12(7)(d) http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/gds/tctm/attachments/tctm12000claimandnoti.pdf  - usually the annual declaration serves as a new claim but not if HMRC has given the claimant at least 35 days notice that it won’t be, and the claimant did not respond to that notice to request their claim is renewed.
There is no specific right of appeal against this decision, but if the claimant was not given at least 35 days notice then it would be unlawful.
This would only leave the possibility that HMRC could accept a new claim under the renewal provision in Welfare Reform Act Commencement No.23 Order, Article 7(6) as discussed in other thread (https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/16002/) -which refers to where a person had an award of a tax credit in respect of a tax year, so that could be a further stretch to cover nil awards, (although it was amended from ‘entitled to’ to ‘had an award’).
Mark

Many thanks Mark.  Will update with the outcome.