The Public and Commercial Services Union has called for its members to take industrial action on 30 and 31 July and 1 August. This series of rolling strikes has been timed to create maximum disruption in the run up to today’s tax credits renewals deadline.
In recognition of the disruption, HMRC have advised that they will now give extra time for people to renew their tax credits. You will now have until 10pm on Wednesday 6 August to renew your tax credits.
Although HMRC say they are deploying as many people as they can to answer the phones, given their past history I would say that it’s sensible to anticipate lengthy delays! As an alternative to waiting on the phone for an eternity you could try renewing online at www.gov.uk/renewtaxcredits, or by using HMRC’s new Intelligent Telephony Automation (ITA) service, which uses speech recognition technology to capture renewals. You can access ITA by ringing the tax credits helpline number – 0345 300 3900 – and saying ‘Renewals’ when prompted.
Paul
