You may recall that my sister was in some distress at the beginning of 2006 because HMRC were trying to get back over £1000 of Tax Credits from her. Their reason was that she hadn’t replied to a letter asking her to prove that she was still disabled. This entry gives more detail.

I thought we had seen this off while I was in India. However, on Friday HMRC phoned our parents’ house, asking to speak with my sister. She was at work and HMRC, understandably, wouldn’t talk to our parents about my sister’s affairs. Instead, they left a number and asked her to call them later.

She did so on Monday, with our father listening in. He described the conversation as follows:

This [conversation] was to inform Sue that the appeal for Tax Years 2003-4 & 2004-5 had failed & that she owes £1,646.03. The bod said that the reason for failure was not stated in his notes, just that the appeal had failed.
In response to me stating that this was not satisfactory he said that Sue should contact the Tax Credit Office to obtain further information & also to discuss details of repayment.

According to HMRC’s website

The Appeals Service will give or send you a copy of the tribunal decision notice as soon as possible after the appeal hearing. This briefly explains the appeal tribunal’s decision. They will also send a copy to us.

As far as I’m currently aware, there has been no such written communication. Bah!