The Lemon Fool

NegevSouth wrote:What's the best way of chasing it up?
Is there a delegated telephone number to a specific department that would handle these matters?
Alternatively, is there a web chat or an email address I could use?

I just called the main number 0300 200 3300. Some times you get through in a few minutes, though at others it's taken me up to 40.

I finally asked to make a complaint, this seemed to kick them into action, I got a call from a supervisor the next day and a call from a team leader of the processing department 2 working days later.

They tell me it has now been processed and a refund issued, but I don't have the money yet. He did say it may be coming as a manual payment by cheque (remember them?) which could take up to 10 days.

(They know things are taking too long, they don't have any excuse other than workload, and are all very nice and apologetic about it.)

Scott.

I've been waiting since May for my refund. I phoned in September to chase it up and was told it would be dealt with in three weeks - I then went on holiday and hoped it would arrive while I was away, but alas no luck. I phoned again last week and was told it was in progress, but a manual repayment process was required that the person I spoke to couldn't do (they tried while I was on the phone). They said it should be done in the next two weeks, but I don't think I'll hold my breath!

In the end I did manage to speak to an agent on the number swill453 mentioned.
She said that it's difficult at the moment to give a date as to when my refund will be paid due to the department's backlog. So I asked if it would be this side of 31st December & the reply was 'there's a possibility'.

But here's the interesting bit...... she was quite friendly & chatty to be fair and apologised that it's taking such a long time for so many people to receive P55 refunds. I suggested in a sort of flippant way that her superiors should employ more staff to reduce the workload. You know what she said? 'It would be much easier you know, if folks just took pension drawdown once a year only, IN MARCH'.

Haha well yes, she has a point, but it's not always conducive for people to do that!

NegevSouth wrote: 'It would be much easier you know, if folks just took pension drawdown once a year only, IN MARCH'.

Haha well yes, she has a point, but it's not always conducive for people to do that!

Agreed, not always conductive or convenient but it is the approach I shall be taking, can't be doing with the hassle others seem to have getting the tax refunded - would rather work around it myself and take out any taxable income during March.

NegevSouth wrote:In the end I did manage to speak to an agent on the number swill453 mentioned.
She said that it's difficult at the moment to give a date as to when my refund will be paid due to the department's backlog. So I asked if it would be this side of 31st December & the reply was 'there's a possibility'.

But here's the interesting bit...... she was quite friendly & chatty to be fair and apologised that it's taking such a long time for so many people to receive P55 refunds. I suggested in a sort of flippant way that her superiors should employ more staff to reduce the workload. You know what she said? 'It would be much easier you know, if folks just took pension drawdown once a year only, IN MARCH'.

Haha well yes, she has a point, but it's not always conducive for people to do that!

How about changing the system so there was a way of indicating (to payroll and/or HMRC) that this is the only income I'm going to have this year, even if you take it in April. They can then get the tax right.

If circumstances change and you take more drawdown in the same year, they'll still be able to tax that appropriately.

Scott.

Gersemi wrote:I've been waiting since May for my refund. I phoned in September to chase it up and was told it would be dealt with in three weeks - I then went on holiday and hoped it would arrive while I was away, but alas no luck. I phoned again last week and was told it was in progress, but a manual repayment process was required that the person I spoke to couldn't do (they tried while I was on the phone). They said it should be done in the next two weeks, but I don't think I'll hold my breath!

Well I can breathe out again - I got the refund last week.

feels like a record, 7 months after electronically lodging the r55, the correct money has been paid back to me. Hallelujah

Well that's me taken all my pension drawdown for this year, and been over-taxed as per normal practice.

So I've submitted my online P55, let's see how long it takes to get the refund this year.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:Well that's me taken all my pension drawdown for this year, and been over-taxed as per normal practice.

So I've submitted my online P55, let's see how long it takes to get the refund this year.

Scott.

Did the same thing two or three weeks ago and received payment today.

Took 2 months for my wife to be notified (from early March until today) that the money will arrive within the next 5 days.

Next time I think we'll take a monthly income from the SIPPs to avoid overpaying tax and then waiting months to get it back.

We tend to let the dividends build up for a year and then live on it the following year so that we have a more accurate budget.

Darka wrote:Took 2 months for my wife to be notified (from early March until today) that the money will arrive within the next 5 days.

Next time I think we'll take a monthly income from the SIPPs to avoid overpaying tax and then waiting months to get it back.

We tend to let the dividends build up for a year and then live on it the following year so that we have a more accurate budget.

From earlier posts in this thread it seems that refunds take longer the further into the tax year you get. Like you I take from accumulated dividends but I always take it as a one-off payment at the very start of the FY and do my P55 form online at the same time and it seems to only ever take a few weeks to get my refund. Of course your/others' tax affairs might be a little more complex than mine, but that doesn't explain why the refunds should take so long assuming the calculations are correct.

I downloaded the HMRC app to my phone. One of the things it has is a "Form Tracker" where you can see the status of submitted forms. For my P55 it currently says

Received 14 April 2023
Estimated response by 5 May 2023
Your form is taking longer to process. This is either because we are doing technical work for it or we are busier than usual.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:So I've submitted my online P55, let's see how long it takes to get the refund this year.

Just got the refund to my account today, so that took a month, more or less. Better than the 4 months it took last year.

Scott.