VAT repayment delay - 30 days passed, helpline hopeless

Our pharmacy business send monthly refund claims, and our submissions for July and Aug '24 have been 'sent for further checks'. The 30 day period has passed for both of these, and we've had no communication from HMRC other than an update online stating we don't need to do anything and they're working on repaying us as soon as possible. After waiting on the helpline for over an hour on Friday, I was advised someone would call me on Monday and as far as they could see it was a standard check and should receive the payment imminently. Needless to say, I didn't receive this call and tried the helpline again today (on hold for an hour before speaking to an agent). The agent I spoke to was abrupt and said she couldn't tell me anything or do anything other than pass my number on 'to the team' again. When I tried to explain (calmly) how this is affecting our business, and asked who 'the team' is and when/if they're likely to call, she terminated the call. We're owed over £23,000 and we're £50 away from our overdraft limit (which cost us £300 to arrange last week) so naturally this is an extremely stressful situation for us and we're going to be defaulting on various payments. The lack of transparent information is inexcusable, and ironically we're incurring interest on the remainder of our corporation tax bill which we're unable to pay until we receive our VAT refunds. Any advice?

Hi,
We are sorry your repayment claims are taking longer than expected. It is important that we do all the necessary checks while processing the claims.
The compliance team will be currently reviewing your claims but if you do need to contact our VAT team again, then please do so for an update.
VAT: general enquiries
Thank you.