21 February 2014
HMRC run exercise in Nottingham targeting single tax credit claimants with undeclared partners
In their drive to combat error and fraud, HMRC are running an exercise in the Nottingham area targeting single tax credit claimants where HMRC think the claimant is part of a couple and so they should therefore have made a joint claim.
You can read HMRC’s press release about this campaign here
Those who have experience of HMRC’s checks on cases where they think a single claimant has an undeclared partner, will be familiar with the approach of writing to single claimants and asking them to send in evidence to HMRC to prove that their single claim is correct and that they are not part of a couple or were, but are no longer. We recommend that anyone targeted in this campaign sends the evidence requested in the letter otherwise tax credit payments could be suspended for failure to reply with an official information request. If the claimant is unable to provide the requested evidence, they should contact HMRC as soon as possible to discuss what other evidence may be acceptable.
You can read more about joint claims and the importance of claiming in the right capacity in our Understanding couples section