Repayment Delays (Again)

So once again my Tax return has been subject to HMRC Sercurity checks which I was told can take up to 6 weeks to sort, well guess what 6 weeks has now passed and still my rebate is sitting at Pending. This seems to nowadays be happening every year, what is happening at HMRC that is making this process so slow and when can I expect to recieve my refund. If HMRC can't sort themselves out maybe that should look at rate of CIS Deducted at source and maybe reduce it down to 15% as its like we are giving the Government an interest free loan every year nowadays, it never used to be like this so what is going on at HMRC?

Hi,

If the 6 week timescale for the security checks has now passed and your repayment has not yet been issued, you will need to contact our Self Assessment team to review this.

Self Assessment: general enquiries

Thank you

OK firstly thank you for your reply. you phone line is only open from 8am to 6pm and from experience takes over an hour to actually get to talk to anyone I work 5.6 days a week and start at 8am and time I get home its normally gone 6pm and as it takes so long to get through to you can't even phone you on my breaks or luchtime. The site I work on has best part of 750 subbies on it and I have asked around and all those that have been selected by HMRC for checks haven't been paid out and were all told 6 weeks so two questions? 1. Why still no payout even though 7 weeks have now passed? 2. Any thruth in it could be upto 12 weeks which one guy said he'd was told by HMRC? What I don't understand if your working on these why havent at least some people recieved their refunds as it seems no one that is being check have and are they done in date order which they should.

I'm also past the six-week point and still showing as pending - last year my repayment (for a May SA submission) was not processed until October - which is a complete joke and completely unacceptable by any customer service metric you care to name. This is especially true when you complete all the online ID checks, involving submission of passport ID etc and still HMRC take months; hiding behind the old chestnut of 'additional security checks'. Either use and rely on the ID&V process or save us all the effort and just tell us we all have to wait till Christmas. It's the hope that kills you... I'm resigned to having to wait till the Autumn yet again for what is a significant sum of money (to me at least). I will be writing to my MP this year if I don't get my repayment soon (whoever that turns out to be after July 4th) and I would urge others to do the same - this appalling service would not be tolerated in any other financial institution and cannot be allowed to continue, HMRC need to wake up and focus on their core business of collecting and processing tax!

Is there a reason HMRC Admins haven't answered the questions?

Just got off the phone with HMRC and was told completion date 8th August, surely this cant be right. How can it take 5 months to match my income against what Main Contractors submits against my UTR and check I am not taking the micky with expenses which in all honesty are quite low. I'd write to my local MP but he will be gone soon.

Decided to bite the bullet and call the HMRC SA helpline today (there goes another 40 minutes of my life on hold that I'm never getting back). I enquired as to the status of my repayment and was given the old 'additional security checks' line and a revised date of 8th July (provisional of course). We will see how that plays out, I did make the point that why bother with ID&V checks using passports etc if they were going to be referred for additional checks anyway - not sure it landed. If it does not change status or get paid by 8th July I will be writing to my new MP; I'm not waiting till October to get it paid again.

I have also been waiting since 8th December for a significant repayment and have chased HMRC 4 times each time waiting for an hour or more, often cut off and have to call all over again (get a decent telephone system guys...) I have been given 4 different dates by which time the security checks will be completed - last one was 25th May but still showing as Repayment Pending and not heard a peep from HMRC. I raised a formal complaint online yesterday which they say will be looked at within 15 to 30 days but I am not holding my breath.