Hey There Mr Taxman

A few years ago I got fed up with the government adverts telling us to make sure we were claiming what we were entitled to. That it was important we claimed tax credit for having a child. So I finally filled in the form and sent it to the Inland Revenue. Note I sent a form for them to look at and calculate what they should pay us. I did not write a letter demanding a certain amount. Anyway, calculate they did. They then, kindly, sent us money for a year. And then decided they wanted it back. When queried they seemed to imply that we had been stealing it off them and that it was our fault. I remind you again, they ran the ads, they worked out what to pay.

Anyways, we paid it back over the following year. We finally paid the last installment. Two months later they sent us a letter saying we still owed them some money. I queried. Was again made to feel like a criminal. We paid.

Then last year they asked for more money. This time we queried a bit more. We argued. We produced a copy of our payments. They finally said that we didn't owe them any more.

Yesterday we got a letter demanding money again. Apparently they think we still owe them money. "J" rang them. They could see the comments on our file from last year that said we had queried it and that the Inland Revenue had investigated then decided we didn't owe anything. They could see it, but didn't seem to believe it. This got bounced up four levels. At one point "J" was almost directed back to the beginnning but she argued and got to speak to a manager. Who again implied that we were stealing from them. "J" said "but you can see on our notes that this was discussed last year". The manager said yes, she could see it, but who did we speak to. "J" said "you've got the notes in front of you, you just read the comments, why are you asking who I spoke to". The manager said she wanted to know who we spoke to. "J" said "isn't it on your notes". To which the answer was "no".

I find this story shocking on so many levels. That they first miscalculated. That they then blamed us. That they then kept coming back to us (I am beginning to know what it feels like to be blackmailed, they just never go away). That we were made to feel as though we stole the money from them. That this many years later they still come back again despite notes saying that we don't owe anything. But, most of all (maybe this will surprise you, I don't know), the most shocking thing, the thing that annoys me the most, is that when you speak to someone and they add notes to your file they don't put who it is.

This is wrong on so many levels. There is no traceability. So with no traceability how do they ensure training. How can they check and then go and discuss a case with someone. Or what if someone wanted to add malicious comments to the bnotes, they could lie about yu and get you into trouble, with no-one ever able to see who did it. As systems go, this seems to take incompetance to a new level.