Missing HMRC Income

[Name Removed] made this Freedom of Information request to Child Maintenance Service This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Child Maintenance Service should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Child Maintenance Service,

Please could you provide information relating to your HMRC-linked interface. In particular, in situations where the NRP is employed through their own company and data is missing for one tax year, but is available for other years either side, does this mean that both a tax return and PAYE data was not submitted to HMRC for that year?

For example:

2013/14: X Income
2014/15: Y Income
2015/16: No data
2016/17: Z Income

Would the income later show up in the system if the tax return and/or PAYE data was submitted late? If so, how long after submission of the tax return and/or PAYE data would it take for the income to display in the system?

Yours faithfully,

Mr [name removed]

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Child Maintenance Service

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no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of Operations FOI Team, Child Maintenance Service

1 Attachment

Dear Mr [name removed],

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 11th
February.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Dear Child Maintenance Service,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Child Maintenance Service's handling of my FOI request 'Missing HMRC Income'.

I find it incomprehensible that you do not hold any information of the request made. The CMS deals with 100,000s of cases every month and the laws of probability alone would say this scenario must occur multiple times – in which case, you must hold information relating to the request.

As I have already pointed out in other FOI responses, there is Upper-Tier case law that confirms it is not solely HMRC’s responsibility to check the income figures where disputes arise. The CMS are in fact duty-bound to check figures where queries arise relating to maintenance cases. Take an example of a NRP deliberately submitting a tax return late to hide income from the CMS – as the motive for doing so is to hide income from the CMS, it cannot be reasonably argued that the CMS doesn’t have a responsibility to investigate that intentional hiding of income from the CMS.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

Yours faithfully,

Mr [name removed]

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Child Maintenance Service

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Dear Child Maintenance Service,

I'm writing to chase up my internal review for case 6246 made on 25th February 2020. While I understand it is a very busy and difficult period for the CMS, you have managed to respond to many more recent FOI requests and internal reviews in recent days.

Yours faithfully,

Mr [name removed]

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Child Maintenance Service

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
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a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
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[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of Operations FOI Team, Child Maintenance Service

1 Attachment

Dear Mr [name removed],

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 25
February.

Your response is attached

Yours sincerely,

DWP Operations FOI Team

Dear Child Maintenance Service,

Thank you for your response ref IR2020/16741 dated 20th April 2020 which is a delayed response to my correspondence dated 25th February 2020.

Yet again, your response chooses to ignore the key point raised, instead raising other issues as a distraction.

The Upper Tier case law referred to in my response was clearly related to it being the CMS' responsibility to investigate missing income rather than solely HMRC's. Your comments regarding reg 36(2) have absolutely nothing to do with this request whatsoever.

Referring back to my (real life) example of a Non-Resident Parent (NRP) deliberately submitting a tax return late to hide income from the CMS – as the motive for doing so is to hide income from the CMS, it cannot be reasonably argued that the CMS doesn’t have a responsibility to investigate that intentional hiding of income from them. Please would you confirm that this is indeed the case?

Or put it another way. If the NRP controls and diverts the income that would otherwise appear in the CMS' HMRC-linked interface, then surely this is a diversion of income under regulation 71 of the Child Support Maintenance Calculation Regulations 2012. In your FOI response ref FOI2020/12108 dated 1st April 2020, the CMS confirmed that they are indeed responsible for determining whether a diversion of income has occured. Do you therefore now accept that the CMS is responsible for investigating the missing 2015/16 income listed in my original FOI request made on 11th February 2020?

Yours faithfully,

Mr [name removed]

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Child Maintenance Service

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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Operations FOI Requests, Child Maintenance Service

Mr [name removed],

You have now exhausted our internal complaints process. If you wish to pursue this you should contact the ICO as per the details below.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office for a decision. Generally the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our own complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF
www.ico.org.uk/Global/contact_us or telephone 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745

Thank you

DWP Freedom of Information Team

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