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Tax Credit case summary 9
In January 2006, Miss J contacted the TCO Helpline to change her bank account details. Due to a system fault, there was a delay in the details being updated and this meant that two further monthly payments of approximately £500 were issued to the old bank account. Miss J could not access the second payment, as, by this time, this account had exceeded its overdraft limit. Miss J contacted the TCO to complain about the delay in updating her bank details and she also asked for the second payment to be replaced. The TCO advised Miss J that this payment would not be replaced, as it was issued to an account that was still open. Miss J was not happy with the responses she received from the TCO and brought her complaint to this office. She felt the TCO Helpline had given her misinformation about the missing payment (some advisers had promised her that the “missing” payment would be re-issued to her new account). She also felt that there had been long delays in the TCO dealing with her complaint.
We obtained recordings of all the Helpline calls that we considered relevant to Miss J’s complaint. We agreed with the TCO that this payment could not be classed as “missing” and, therefore, could not be re-issued. After listening to Miss J’s calls to the Helpline, we decided that the level of service provided by the Helpline had been very poor. In three calls, advisers and a team leader had given Miss J incorrect information about the payment that had gone into the wrong account. At least two of these advisers had told Miss J that the payment would be reissued. One call was escalated to a team leader but he also provided incorrect information and gave a clear impression that the missing payment would be replaced without any further delay. We discussed the content of these calls with the TCO and they agreed with our concerns about the service the Helpline had provided. In addition, the TCO accepted that there had been delays in dealing with Miss J’s complaint. We agreed with the TCO that they should pay Miss J a total of £141compensation in recognition of these failings and the costs that she had incurred. We discussed the above issues with Miss J and she was happy to resolve her complaint on this basis.
