Church and State blog: My Stage 2 complaint re the unauthorised updating of my address by HM Revenue and Customs includes the issue of the unjustified closure of my Self Assessment record by the Customer Service Manager for PAYE and Self Assessment (WITH UPDATE 4/8/2017)

Thursday, August 03, 2017

My Stage 2 complaint re the unauthorised updating of my address by HM Revenue and Customs includes the issue of the unjustified closure of my Self Assessment record by the Customer Service Manager for PAYE and Self Assessment (WITH UPDATE 4/8/2017)

Re: Internet cuts since 26 May 2017

From my earlier blog post's Update 4 August (11.16am):

"And it's not just Facebook blocks, blocks on public access to our Church and State website and the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site that Declan and I are dealing with these days. We have also been dealing with Internet cuts since 26 May. See my blog post of 21 June, Internet cuts: We pay £65 per month for BT Infinity but feel we are in a race against time to stay online (WITH UPDATE 4/8/2017 RE: 102nd Internet cut since 26 May 2017)."

We had to suspend work on our Church and State website on 15 June after 4 internet cuts in one night. With a then unprecedented 6 internet cuts on 6 July; 6 cuts on 22 July; 5 cuts on 1 August; 1 cut so far today (as of 4 August at 11.16am).

92nd 1 August 2017, 10.32am
93rd 1 August 2017, 3.47pm
94th 1 August 2017, 4.46pm
95th 1 August 2017, 8.19pm
96th 1 August 2017, 9.31pm

The War on Free Expression

HMRC Customer Service Manager for PAYE and Self Assessment: "We previously asked you to complete Self Assessment tax returns because you told us that you would receive self-employed income. However, your 2015-16 return only included income of £2,967 from Network for Church Monitoring and as you had told us that this was PAYE income, we have closed your Self Assessment record" [emphasis added].

I read a letter from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Self Assessment this morning in disbelief. For over three weeks, I have been complaining to HMRC about their unauthorised updating of my address on 11 July; see my blog post of 13 July, HM Revenue and Customs: My Self-Assessment address has been updated by HMRC without my authority and Declan has just been informed by Newham Council that our Housing Benefit may be suspended as a result (WITH DOUBLE UPDATE 14/7/2017). Now HMRC Customer Service Manager (PAYE and SA) John Fitzpatrick tells me that they have gone and closed my Self Assessment record. We have absolutely no idea how far HMRC are going to go with this; see my blog post 20 February, The Central London County Court: District Judge Avent dismisses Declan's claim against the Greater London Authority-commissioned St Mungo's that alleged the falsification and fabrication of data against us (WITH UPDATE 16/3/2017). As I did with my Stage 1 complaint, I have copied HMRC Chief Executive Jon Thompson into my Stage 2 complaint this afternoon:

For the attention of Jon Thompson, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary of HM Revenue and Customs

Complaints Service (PAYE and SA) Tier 2
HM Revenue and Customs

Address removed for email

3 August 2017

Tax Reference [number removed]

Dear Operational Manager,

I believe that HMRC Customer Service Manager (PAYE and SA) John Fitzpatrick failed to deal properly with my complaint below. I attach his first tier response of 24 July 2017, which I received in this morning's post. Please treat this complaint as a Stage 2 complaint.

Newham Benefits Service (NBS) cannot provide my husband with assurance that his Housing Benefit will not be suspended as a result of the unauthorised updating of my address by HMRC on 11 July 2017. NBS's latest letter is also attached. They say the suspension will be automatic if NBS receives notification of a change in circumstance from either HMRC or the Department for Work and Pensions. As I have repeatedly stressed, my address has not changed since 17 May 2014. Please would you provide me with a letter stating that HMRC will not update my address again without my authorisation.

Further, I never told HMRC that I am self-employed or that I would receive self-employed income. I am not self-employed and I have never declared myself as such to HMRC or Newham Council. Mr Fitzpatrick writes: "We previously asked you to complete Self Assessment tax returns because you told us that you would receive self-employed income. However, your 2015-16 return only included income of £2,967 from Network for Church Monitoring and as you had told us that this was PAYE income, we have closed your Self Assessment record."

Please would you also provide me with immediate assurance that my Self Assessment record has not, and will not, be closed. To clarify, I am employed as the Webmaster for Network for Church Monitoring (N4CM). My 2015-16 Self Assessment tax return only included income from N4CM of £2,967 (untaxed income). Contrary to what Mr Fitzpatrick says, I never told HMRC this was PAYE income. My 2015-16 return included a declaration that I do not have the PAYE tax reference from my employer because my annual earnings fell below the PAYE tax threshold (then £10,600 per year). There is absolutely no justification for the closure of my Self-Assessment record.

This morning I tried speaking with Hazel McMaster at PAYE and Self Assessment Complaints. I was told that she would phone me back, but she never did. I was assured that my Self Assessment record is currently open. I was not, however, provided with any assurance that the issue of the unjustified closure of my Self Assessment record by Mr Fitzpatrick will be handled by HMRC in accordance with the appropriate laws.

Yours faithfully,

Maria Dolores Heavey
NINO: [number removed]

7 July: Complaint to the CEO of Royal Mail: Has Royal Mail declared open warfare on our incoming mail? And this question is raised on top of Internet cuts that are going out of control (WITH DOUBLE UPDATE 10/7/2017)

UPDATE 4 August (12.14pm): I am still waiting for written assurance from HMRC that my address will not be updated by them again without my authority, and that the issue of the unjustified closure of my Self Assessment record by the Customer Service Manager for PAYE and Self Assessment will be handled by HMRC in accordance with the appropriate laws. You couldn't make it up: it has taken us over three years to try and secure our address with HMRC; and now, based on fabricated hearsay evidence which no independent judiciary would accept, the Customer Service Manager for PAYE and Self Assessment writes to me: "...we have closed your Self Assessment record". It is our single indisputable narrative going forward that we are being harassed even by HMRC; see my blog post of 29 November 2016, Will it take the Independent Police Complaints Commission to protect our address with HM Revenue and Customs? (WITH UPDATE 22/12/2016).

From My Picks:

9 June: Ministry of Justice: Complaint to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice against the County Court at Central London, Royal Courts of Justice (WITH UPDATE - Day 13 21/6/2017)

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Thursday, August 03, 2017

My Stage 2 complaint re the unauthorised updating of my address by HM Revenue and Customs includes the issue of the unjustified closure of my Self Assessment record by the Customer Service Manager for PAYE and Self Assessment (WITH UPDATE 4/8/2017)

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