6 October 2014

Tax credits computer system downtime 11 and 12 October 2014

HMRC have advised that their routine autumn IT system upgrade will take place over the weekend of 11 and 12 October 2014.

This means HMRC's tax credit computer system will be unavailable from 10.30 on Friday 10 October until the morning of Monday 13 October. As a result, the tax credits helpline will only be able to provide a minimal service and give general tax credits information only on Saturday 11 October.

Callers will receive a message at the beginning of the call advising of the temporary reduced service.

The IT upgrade includes 2 main changes:-

Stopping Tax Credits for new UC Customers

From October, customers moving off tax credits onto Universal Credit will have their tax credits stopped and finalised in-year, at the point their entitlement to tax credits stops; this is known as ‘in-year finalisation’. Anyone affected should be contacted by HMRC and advised what they need to do. You can read more in our Transition to UC section

Cross Award Recovery

From October, some households may have their tax credits award reduced to repay outstanding debts from previous claims as HMRC will combine overpayments from previous tax credit claims into one debt. 

HMRC will contact claimants who are likely to be affected by these changes to remind them of their outstanding debt. Anyone with an arrangement already in place to repay debts will not be affected by this change. You can read more in our section on dealing with overpayment debt