Adjudicator
This page contains information about the Adjudicator's Office, including:
What it does
Advantages and disadvantages
What complaints are eligible?
Cost
Timescale
Procedure
Outcomes
What it does
The Adjudicator's Office deals with complaints about HM Revenue and Customs, and some other agencies including the Insolvency Service and the Office of the Public Guardian. HM Revenue and Customs deals with income tax, national insurance contributions, child benefit and tax credits.
This information applies in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. You can also complain to the Adjudicator if you live abroad but pay UK tax.
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Advantages
- it is free.
- it is private and confidential
- there is no need to attend a hearing
Disadvantages
- not all types of complaints can be investigated
- it can take a long time for your complaint to be investigated
- you can’t complain about matters which could go to a tribunal or to the courts
- you can’t question decisions about amounts of tax payable
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What complaints are eligible?
The Adjudicator will investigate complaints about:
- HM Revenue and Customs
- The Insolvency Service
- The Office of the Public Guardian
- The Valuation Office Agency
The Adjudicator considers complaints about the service provided by these organisations, including:
- unreasonable delays
- mistakes
- poor or misleading advice
- inappropriate staff behaviour
- the use of discretion
The main areas of complaint to the Adjudicator in 2008-09 were tax credits (not the amount awarded but the way HM Revenue and Customs have handled overpayments), tax coding and tax investigations and enquiries.
There are some complaints the Adjudicator cannot consider:
- Disputes about matters of law, which are dealt with by independent tribunals
- Appeals about the award of tax credits, which are considered by the Independent Appeals Service
- Complaints about the amount of tax you have been asked to pay
- Complaints about government, or departmental, policy
- Issues that the courts have already considered or could have considered
- Complaints that have been, or are being, investigated by the Parliamentary Ombudsman
You must first complain directly to the organisation, and give them a chance to try to sort things out. If you are not happy with their final response, then you can take your complaint to the Adjudicator’s office.
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Cost
The scheme is free to complainants.
If the Adjudicator decides that the organisation complained about has failed to sort the matter out properly itself, then you can get reasonable costs back as part of your award. However, the Adjudicator considers that you don’t need a legal advisor to represent you; if you decide to have one, you will have to pay the cost yourself.
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Timescale
In 2008-09 the average turnaround time for investigations was 50 weeks. This is one of the main areas of dissatisfaction by complainants about the Adjudicator's investigations.
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Procedure
You can make a complaint in writing, by telephone, by e-mail, or in person at the Adjudicator’s office.
You will need to provide some basic information, including:
- your own name, address and phone number
- Your National Insurance number
- details of your complaint
- details of the office you are complaining about and any references they have given you
- what you think the organisation could do to put things right
If you prefer, you can ask a relative, a friend or an adviser to make the complaint on your behalf.
Once you have contacted the Adjudicator’s office, someone will get back to you within ten working days to let you know whether or not they can take on your complaint.
You need to complain first of all to HM Revenue and Customs, or to the agency you have a problem with. If you haven’t yet done this, the Adjudicator’s office will explain how to do so.
The first thing the Adjudicator’s office will do is to request all the information from the agency or department concerned. They will then try to resolve the complaint by talking to both sides. They refer to these negotiations as ‘mediation’. Around a third of complaints are resolved in this way.
If it is not possible to resolve the complaint at this stage, then the Adjudicator will investigate the case, and will issue a formal letter setting out her recommendations.
If you are still unhappy with the Adjudicator's decision, you can ask an MP to refer the complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman.
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Outcomes
In 2008-09 the Adjudicator investigated 2,174 complaints, 34% of which were upheld. The highest proportion of complaints were about mishandling overpayment of tax credits, and 37% of these complaints were upheld in favour of the complainant. The proportion of complaints that were resolved by the department agreeing to reconsider its original decision increased from 7% in 2007-08 to 28% in 2008-09.
Among the remedies the Adjudicator can recommend are:
- an apology
- compensation (including reimbursing costs and payments for distress)
- writing off a debt or overpayment of tax or interest
It is worth noting that compensation payments for distress are not very large, and will usually be between £25 and £500. Amounts towards the upper end of this range will only be awarded in very serious cases.
In 2008-09 the Adjudicator's involvement led to nearly £2 million in tax credit overpayments being written off. This was a substantial (nearly three-fold) increase over the previous year's figure. The Adjudicator indicates that this is the result of a revised code for HM Revenue and Customs on managing disputed overpayments.
Although the Adjudicator's recommendation is not binding, the organisations involved have always complied with them.
As well as investigating individual complaints, the Adjudicator will also feed back common problems to the organisations concerned, and suggest ways to improve the service.
The Adjudicator's Office asks people who make a complaint to comment on the service they receive. During 2008-09:
- 68% were fairly or very satisfied with the outcome of their complaint
- 48% of those who were dissatisfied identified the slowness of the process as the main reason for their dissatisfaction
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March 2010
