My wife's died. Well, according to Inland Revenue....

[Cozzer]

My wife's employer's payroll department reckon there's something wrong with her income tax, and requested she contact IR to check stuff.
Last night I watched over her shoulder as she tried to log in to the GOV site, using her 12 digit "Gateway" account.
Nope, not recognised.
Clicked the button to generate the "correct" Gateway....and it was exactly as she'd typed.
Name, address, DOB, NI number, driving licence, expiry, etc., etc., etc.
Nope.
"Can't verify who you are."
This morning, she tries again, this time in collusion with two of her payroll staff.
First attempt, same as above. The two staff verified every key press....
Tried again.....

This time, it tells my wife that she's deceased.
Yes, you read that correctly. My wife is apparently no more.

Amazingly, there's a phone number to report such matters.
(What?!)
She hangs on for 45 minutes, to get some geezer answering.
She goes through the story, with him repeating every step.....before telling her she's on the wrong number, even though she rang the one on the Gov site....

To be continued, no doubt....

Oh...before I forget....my suggestion last night was to forget trying to ring....go see 'em instead.
There's an IR office in Sheffield....
Nope.
It's closed down.

 

[NickDReed]

Does this mean you're free to buy tools without fear of recrimination??

 

[Myfordman]

Put in a claim for a refund of any tax paid after death!

 

[Cozzer]

Put in a claim for a refund of any tax paid after death!

Actually, I was thinking of having a crack at her employer, as apparently I get £30k if she kippers whilst employed!

 

[NickDReed]

Actually, I was thinking of having a crack at her employer, as apparently I get £30k if she kippers whilst employed!

Did I hear you say Shaper Origin?

I'm very sorry for your loss...

 

[Cabinetman]

Well as far as I’m aware dead people don’t pay income tax yippee!

 

[Ollie78]

This does not surprise me one bit. We had a letter from the universal credit dept saying that as they are stopping tax credits we need to transfer to it.

Now they must know all our details as we have been claiming child tax credits since our first kid was born ( not that they give us anything mostly ) 10 years ago, pay council tax, are married, my wife is employed ( by the local council ) and I file self employment returns every year.
Could they just transfer our details ?

Nope.

We both had to fill out endless forms online and I had to have 2 separate meetings at the jobcentre.
First to confirm my identity, despite having a national insurance number, valid passport, driving licence, paying council tax at the same address for 10 years, marriage and birth certificates UTR number etc etc.
And a second one with a "job coach" which I had never heard of before in order to prove I am "gainfully self employed".
Now I must file a monthly report of my cashflow to them. And agree to try and make some money ( I forget the official stupid term they used ).

I realise I don`t make much money sometimes but I have been self employed for 14 years.

This is probably the single most demeaning and annoying thing I have had to do, probably took a full day of my time to sort out.

At least they beleive I am alive and might even really be me !!

Ollie

 

[Cozzer]

Well, this evening's update on my late wife's progress is that she rang the alternative number which was answered after 1 hour 10 minutes.
She had to recount the whole story all over again, to the amusement of the listener by all accounts. No comments as to whether it was unusual/first time they'd ever heard it/this is the 17th time I've heard this since lunch....
You can probably guess what's coming.....there was nothing "they" can do, so she has to put it all (again) in an email to some department-or-other, and they'll respond in "48 hours or so"....

Pathetic.
Wouldn't you have thought that a client - who their system thinks is dead - might've rung a few alarm bells at their end?
Christ knows what's going on....
And as for the employee who found it all a little amusing...well, the mind boggles.
It all smacks a little like the PO and Horizon farce....

 

[AdamMurphy]

Maybe identity theft and that someone filed a death notice to claim benefits /life insurance policy . You just don't know .stranger things have happened interesting story. Hope you get to the bottom of it

 

[misterfish]

This all sounds like one of the financial problems that was mentioned a couple of weeks ago in the Sunday Observer financial problms page. It was caused by someone else with a similar name and date of birth dying recently and the 'authorities' finding your wife as 'similar' and automatically and erroniously marking her as dead. I think the newspaper got involved and 'solved' the problem as it was reflecting badly on the government department!

 

[Richard_C]

I hope you sort it out quickly - there can be knock on effects. I ran a large pension fund and our administrators had permitted access to the government NI number database to check that all the people we paid pensions to were still alive. We always made our own enquiries before acting on it if there was a discrepancy but I'm sure some funds will just stop paying. I think banks and ISA providers do the same to prevent fraud. So keep an eye on everything you can think of for the next few weeks. Sounds like a nightmare.

 

[Terrytpot]

Put in a claim for a refund of any tax paid after death!

Fat chance…when my pop shuffled off the ir tried to spanner my mom every year for his tax for 3 years on the trot!

 

[Cooper]

My experience with all government departments and agencies, after my wife died, was that I had to wait ages to get through to a human and explain the details of my circumstances and reason for calling only to be passed on down the line and go through it all over again. I was repeatedly given incorrect information and when paper forms were sent they were the wrong ones.
One of the first things George Osborn did when he became chancellor was drastically reduce the staff at HMRC to save money, as I recon the most stupid economy ever. The only department that brings in money to the government is now so inefficient everything now takes much longer to sort out and must cost much more to do each task. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they are now missing out on a lot of tax especially from the very wealthy because they don’t have enough well qualified staff.

 

[Cozzer]

Saw my dead wife this lunchtime. Surprisingly, the department involved have actually made contact this morning, but laddo couldn't be of much help because he was "working from home and didn't have access to everything he needed...."
(No, I'm not making any of this up, by the way. Is this country going down the toilet, or what?)
Anyway, he also contacted my wife's payroll department and gave - you've guessed it - yet another phone number for them to contact. Not my wife, note - just the payroll section.
Why?!
Don't you have any personal access to the tax people without getting a third party involved?
This whole thing stinks to high heaven....
As with AdamMurphy's contribution above, I suspected something similar yesterday. Yes, far fetched, but as he astutely points out, things like that do happen....
Again, cover-ups and people watching their backs and *rses - think the PO and Horizon scandal. If someone had written a best-selling thriller along the same lines, most readers would've thought "good fiction story"...but it could never happen....

 

[XTiffy]

I must add that blaming Osborn is way off the mark (I am no fan of his). The the inland revenue has always been rubbish. Being self-employed from 1977, I had several issues with them, when Osborn was in short trousers, this cost me lost time and wasted money on accountants to fight my corner (and I was right). I believe the whole of the civil service has degenerated over the years and they are neither civil or a service.

 

[treeturner123]

I must add that blaming Osborn is way off the mark (I am no fan of his). The the inland revenue has always been rubbish. Being self-employed from 1977, I had several issues with them, when Osborn was in short trousers, this cost me lost time and wasted money on accountants to fight my corner (and I was right). I believe the whole of the civil service has degenerated over the years and they are neither civil or a service.

The Civil Service is now so appalling because no one stays in the same post or even department long enough before transferring to yet another department..

Read 'How Westminster Works.. and Why it Doesn't'

 

[--Tom--]

Jokes aside - may be worth checking it’s not been done fraudulently as a way to try and get money from any life insurance or pension she may hold

Couple of fake docs to then get real government ones issued could work

 

[RogerS]

Well, this evening's update on my late wife's progress is that she rang the alternative number which was answered after 1 hour 10 minutes.
She had to recount the whole story all over again, to the amusement of the listener by all accounts. No comments as to whether it was unusual/first time they'd ever heard it/this is the 17th time I've heard this since lunch....
You can probably guess what's coming.....there was nothing "they" can do, so she has to put it all (again) in an email to some department-or-other, and they'll respond in "48 hours or so"....

Pathetic.
Wouldn't you have thought that a client - who their system thinks is dead - might've rung a few alarm bells at their end?
Christ knows what's going on....
And as for the employee who found it all a little amusing...well, the mind boggles.
It all smacks a little like the PO and Horizon farce....

Contact your MP. Regardless of party, if they are any good then (eventually) you will get a result. Don't waste your time any further otherwise.

 

[Richard_C]

Contact your MP.

Not a bad idea, especially if you can get an in-person MP surgery appointment with your wife present to demonstrate how un-dead she is. Look, breathing in and out, just like you etc.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Good idea to write to your MP. The e-Mail address of the CEO of HMRC is

[email protected]

I’d write to both at the same time.