Bloody tax credits
I see today that child tax credits are in the news again.
We claim child tax credit. Or rather, we try to claim child tax credit. Since the start of April we have recieved 3 copies of a huge tax credit claim booklet with all of our details in each. That’s 6 identical documents. When I rang them to ask why they were spamming us with these the response was “Don’t know - it does that sometimes”. *sigh*
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago yet another large envelope from the inland revenue turns up. This time it is a renewal form. Ok, apparantly we can update our details online and renew it so off I go to the website. Firstly I need my username that apparantly I chose 3 years ago. Errrrr…I try all the normal account names I use without luck. Not put off, I go through the I’m a dumb arse and can’t remember my login process. I’m informed that my account name will be posted to me. Fair enough.
A week or so later my account name appears as promised. No wonder I couldn’t remember it - it is a 12 character name with random letters and digits. Using my new shiny e-Government account I log in. It works! I’m logged into my e-Government portal. Wooooo.
Milliseconds later my excitement has passed and I attempt to work out how to renew my credit claim. Finally I find a link to tax credits. I click it and end up at a site telling me to sign up for a username. Hmmmm. Not to be put off, I enter my random username that I have been sent and attempt to login again. Partial success. It now seems to know my NI number and my date of birth but won’t let me get any further. Apparantly I now need to enter my service pin that I would have set up some time in the past. errrr….
I enter all of the pins that I can think of but nope, none of them appear to work. Bugger. My this time I have spent nearly 3 weeks attempting to login into the bloody thing so I will not give up. I finally find a way of getting a new pin sent to me.
My new pin finally turned up today. Now I always thought that PIN stood for Personal Identity Number. My new PIN is H54FXS34JPLK (well, not exactly that - I’ve changed a couple of digits but you get the idea). No wonder I couldn’t guess it. Still, I’m now fully armed and ready to get e-Governmented up. I load the portal. I login and locate the tax credit service page. I log in (again - it’s obviously not just UKC who are failing miserably to get SSO working) and hurrah! I have a “renew your tax credit” link! Sucess! I click the link and after it thinks for a while I get:
Please return to this site once you have been asked to renew your award.
Argggghhhhh. The only reason I’m here is because I was asked to renew my award. 4 pissing weeks ago. Still, it appears that my uber e-Government portal login PIN jibble gives me access to a couple of other services one of which actually appears to be live….
I have spent 4 weeks of ringing helplines and filling in forms to end up the proud owner of a login that gives me access to the “SAPS Sheep Annual Premium Scheme application”.
Anyone got a sheep or two I can borrow?
I’m beginning to think I won’t bother. We only get 400 quid a year anyway. I think the system has beaten me. Maybe thats the plan…
