Your consumer champion

HMRC is forcing me to pay £4,764 I don’t owe

QI’m a single mother of two daughters, aged six and eight. I work for a charity that supports carers, which meant I was classed as a key worker during the pandemic. Because of this both my girls continued to attend school, nursery and after-school clubs throughout the lockdowns. I earn £17,000 a year and get extra help without which I wouldn’t be able to afford childcare. I declared all this information to HMRC last year.

Soon afterwards I received a letter inviting me to a mandatory phone interview to discuss my childcare costs. It took place in July 2021. During the interview I was asked to confirm that the childcare costs I had declared were correct and that my children had attended school and childcare throughout the pandemic. I did so and the call ended.

In September I was shocked when I received my final tax credits decision for the year 2020/21 stating that I had no childcare costs. HMRC said it had overpaid me by £4,764 and said I needed to pay this back via reduced payments. I am left in an utter state of panic. My gas and electricity bills have just risen massively and any reduction to my income will leave me struggling to make ends meet.

The letter said I should contact HMRC as soon as possible if any of the details were wrong, so I called the helpline. I was told that the details of my childcare for 2020/21 were in fact correct. The case was closed on the system, I was told. I asked to speak to someone higher up and was told to raise a dispute through the website. I did this more than three months ago but have heard nothing. – CW, via email A I’m amazed that you managed to keep your cool with HMRC as well as you did. Its “computer says no” attitude was completely unacceptable and might have sent others in your shoes over the edge. However, you have become an extremely tough cookie, I came to realise, since you kicked out your abusive, manipulative partner when your younger daughter was just seven months old. From that moment you became a solo parent to two girls under three. What an incredibly brave thing to do. The fact you coped while holding down a demanding job will leave many reading this feeling quite in awe of you. I know I do.

You’ve been able to keep working only thanks to government support. You paid for childcare out of your own pocket on the understanding that the cost was being reimbursed via tax credits. But HMRC seemed to be denying that your children were ever in childcare during the period in question, which is bonkers. You have receipts which prove otherwise.

I got straight on to HMRC and asked it to escalate your complaint. Following a proper investigation I’m pleased to say the tax office was swiftly forced to eat its words. It confirmed it had incorrectly removed the childcare costs from your 2020-21 tax year. This happened when it amended your childcare costs for the 2021-22 tax year in September, not as a result of the compliance inquiry in July 2021, it said.

This came as a massive relief, but there was more. Despite HMRC’s false claim that you owed £4,764, I have established that in fact it was the one that owed you money. Its investigation found that, as a result of an earlier error, you had been underpaid by £1,300 in a previous year. You have now received this amount, along with £200 as an apology.

I really hope HMRC will take a long, hard look in the mirror over all this. The way it pulled the shutters down when it was the one in the wrong is simply appalling. A major review of its customer service is now needed, especially in light of the cost of living crisis. Errors such as this may seem like peanuts to tax officers, but for some families they are the difference between heating their homes and freezing.

Happily for you, this refund means you can still afford your bills. In fact, you say you no longer have an excuse for your elder daughter not to learn the trumpet. This is wonderful to hear.

Estate agent wants £4,000 fee for nothing

QI decided to move into a retirement village so I asked Fox & Sons estate agents in Dorchester to sell my house. The deputy manager visited me twice, first to suggest a sale price and press me to sign a contract, then to take some photographs. Then my neighbour knocked on my door and said her cousin in Cumbria was interested in buying my house. I got in touch and a price was agreed. Stupidly, with hindsight, I told Fox & Sons of this development. At no time did Fox & Sons get in touch with me and it did not produce any viewers.

I am beside myself as I have now sold my house and am being asked to pay nearly £4,000 in commission. But what for? I am an 89-year- old woman with no family or anyone to help me. I do not have sufficient funds to cover the fee. I have only my state pension.

Surely I can just pay Fox & Sons for the two visits and the photographs, which I am more than willing to do. – JE, Dorchester A Your contract states that commission is payable if a buyer has been introduced by Fox & Sons during its sole agency. However, you say the agent didn’t produce the buyer, who instead learned your house was for sale through their cousin. You say Fox & Sons had nothing to do with any negotiations or administration relating to the sale and had no contact with the buyer. Because of this you think it was unfair of Fox & Sons to expect you to pay the £4,000 fee.

If the sale had ended up being a private one, as you described, then £4,000 certainly seemed like a lot to pay for a simple valuation and some photographs. I asked Fox & Sons about its level of involvement and, contradicting your version of events, it said it had registered the buyer as an

If the sale was private, the sum seemed like a lot for a valuation and some photographs

applicant on its system and verified their identities.

In addition it said it had records of negotiating and managing the sale of your home, including confirming the offer from the purchaser, acceptance of the offer and memorandum of sale, as well as carrying out money laundering checks. I asked to see these records but it denied my request.

Sometimes companies are reluctant to share their internal records for privacy reasons, but someone had misled me and I wanted to know who. When I phoned you to relay what I’d been told, you were outraged at Fox & Sons’ denial. I said I wanted to speak to the couple who bought your home to hear their version and you gladly passed me their phone number, though you warned that the wife was reluctant to talk.

Her husband said that although the pair had spoken to you independently about the sale price, they originally saw the property advertised in the estate agent’s window. They bought the home without doing a viewing, partly because he had cancer at the time, he said. Instead, their cousin who lived on your road took a video. So although private talks between buyer and seller were held, this was not a private sale, it seems. Their solicitors had never communicated directly with you, he said. The process had all been via the estate agent.

So although you think this estate agent is charging money for old rope here, you are very much on the hook for this bill. I’m not sure what you imagined I’d find when verifying your story, but I think this idea that you are being unfairly extorted out of £4,000 is a fantasy cooked up in your head. Clearly you’re desperate to avoid paying and thought I could make it go away. Well, I’m afraid I can’t. My advice to you is to pay up and move on before you waste even more of your own time fighting it.

God knows, you have already wasted enough of mine. *