STRAIGHT TO THE POINT

I WAS claiming Married Couple’s Allowance with my wife until her death, but have since re-married. Can I still claim it?

J. B., Manchester. YOu can keep claiming the perk, which cuts your tax bill by between £322 and £835.50 a year, as long as either you or your partner were born before april 6, 1935. MY WATER heater broke in March, so I called We Fix Now for an engineer visit costing £70.80. He reset the thermostat but, by the end of the day, it was broken again.

The same engineer came back a week later to replace it, charging another £70.80 plus £24.80 materials. It doesn’t seem fair that I must pay two call-out fees if the thermostat should have been replaced first time round.

S. S., London. usuaLLY, if a second visit is required due to an engineer’s mistake, any call-out fee should be waived. But We Fix now says the engineer did not replace the thermostat initially in an attempt to save you cash, as resetting it often rectifies the problem. It has agreed to refund the second £70.80 as a gesture of goodwill.

AFTER drawing my private pension, I was taxed at an emergency rate. I claimed £3,373.85, but received a cheque for just £1,754.41. HM Revenue & Customs says I used the services of The Tax Repayment Agency, which took the rest. But I can’t recall dealing with them.

I. B., Barnsley, South Yorks. THe Tax repayment agency and similar firms will fill out the paperwork for you to secure a tax refund in return for a fee — in this case, 40 pc of the rebate plus VaT.

But it’s unnecessary: you can apply for a tax refund directly for nothing. Hmrc says you did sign an agreement with the firm to act on your behalf and it will call you to explain.