HMRC agreeing silly payment terms for overpayments - madness!

[Dipply75]

Sorry for this big ramble but I cannot get over this.

 

(deep breath) I had what seems now to be my yearly visit from HMRC regarding an overpayment from 2003-04 that they insist I owe and must pay back. Usually I just receive a letter threatening all sorts of awful consequences if I dont give them a years pay in a month blah blah. I phone to complain, try and sort it out and ask for a response - nothing usually until just after Xmas when they appear again as if it is the first time they are speaking to me (this is since the end of 2005!) *sigh*

 

This year, a 'field officer' appears at my door, who was a bit bewildered that I invited her in and offered her a cuppa (as this was going to take a while lol). Well, she sat in my living room, getting more and more embarrassed, reading through some of the 6 inches of paperwork I had on this and she even called the helpline in front of me (apparently to clear this us once and for all) to be told just "there are various reasons for the overpayment, we cannot pinpoint one". She could get no further. HHMMM, precise lol

 

She was speechless and I just laughed, this has become standard practice for me now. She had no idea what to do next but said - to stop me being hounded for now I should do an income and expenditure to prove what I could afford to pay back if it came to it (am on maternity pay so thought that would be entertaining also).

 

Basically, they would be quite willing to agree that I pay my apparent 'debt' back over the next 59 years (I am 32 just now). The officer agreed with me that it will cost more every month to manage this etc than the actual debt in the end up but it has to be done (?!)

 

But wait....it gets better.Just when you think they could not be more ridiculous, they surpass themselves. The longest agreed repayment term she had heard of for an overpayment is apparently over 500 years!!!! WTF???!! I mean really....WHY? This just proves that instead of letting the horror stories die, learn from their mistakes, cut their losses and have a fresh start with what was a really good IDEA originally....HMRC will claw back every penny possible - NO MATTER HOW MANY CENTURIES THIS SHOULD TAKE AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH MORE IT ACTUALLY COSTS THEM TO DO THIS!

 

They are actually going to spend pounds to collect pennies from folk who dont have any.mmmmmmmmm.....yup..........GENUIS IN ACTION.

 

Had to let folk know as I still cannot get over that conversation. Oh and by the way - anyone being chased just for not returning a declaration form at some point? - some 'higher ups' decided to do that at a board meeting. Just re-issuing the forms would be far too sensible for goodness sake, they want entire years payments back - money they will agree you were actually entitled to but because a simple form was not signed, you are now thousands in debt? Bureaucracy gone mad.

 

From what I can gather there just isn't any law involved now - just some big suits who have random meetings to decide what to try next as the latest tactic isn't working.(and coming up with fairy tale solutions - see above) How do you fight that????

 

(PS - I do not mean to trivialise any of this by sounding so nonchalant and cracking jokes. I know they are ruining lives, mine included, but I have decided I will not let the b@****ds get me down - bring it on)

[Joa]

I find that the higher the rank of the civil servant, the more they are touched by madness, off their nut, deserted by common sense, paralised by "procedures and policies", unable to cut the crap or admit error, happy to blame someon else, bewildered at the notion of competency or accountability and finally, to my outrage: earning sackfull of my tax money.

 

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