R&D claim severe delay & no response

Dear HMRC, We submitted an R&D tax claim 28 weeks ago with UTR 8011424952. After following up with you many times, we heard from you at the end of January about submitting an amended version, as the original submission had miscalculated figures. We submitted the amended version on the 7th of February, but after 8 weeks, we are still waiting to hear back from you, even after many emails to rd.incentivesreliefs@hmrc.gov.uk. As a woman founder trying to grow her tech business in challenging market conditions, I've been highly distressed over this severe delay. I had to pause our development efforts due to a cash shortage, and can't pay our PAYE as we were counting on the claim amount. This situation hurts my company badly at this point. I understand that your team must handle a significant number of claims with limited resources, and I appreciate the work you do. However, there has been a very long delay with no proper response. Further delays can have significant financial implications for my business. Please give me a proper timeline for when I should receive my payment. Kind Regards,

Still haven't received any replies or updates even though I've sent emails at least 5 times over the past month. Could someone reach out and give me a solid update on the timeline? It's really not fair to make people wait for months without any contact or update.

Exactly the same here not that it helps you but at least you know it’s not just you !!

My company is in the same situation. I'm desperate to patent a new product/system that we have developed part funded by previous R&D Tax Claims which is great, but my latest claim is being contested so I don't have the cashflow to get this over the line which is surely what the scheme is all about? Saddening and worrying.

We have been waiting over a year for a client. he has complained to his MP

Same situation here. Been waiting for 5 months now.

We are in roughly the same boat. It has only been four and a half months for us but we are barely scraping through. We have used two of our lifelines of beg and borrow, only steal is left. Unfortunately, I do not have the aptitude for the last lifeline. With our more refined products & services, we have had interest from clients that would divert interest away from European and American providers and bring them to the UK. That is if we survive another month or two. It's so sad that years of hard work and investments will go to waste because of a backlog in R&D processing.

Alerting HMRC to cashflow problems may be counterproductive - the legislation suggests that a company shouldn't rely on R&D relief for its continuing operations.