One company director, who received a reminder for a Social Security payment of more than £22,000 – despite having paid the sum over three months ago – said the error was widespread and that he had spoken to several other businesses who had received similar letters.
Another business, he said, had been charged over £70,000, had followed the instruction to pay the amount and was now attempting to cancel the duplicate payment.
In an email exchange seen by the JEP, a member of the Treasury Department’s debt-collection team confirmed that the reminder letter for quarter A 2021 Social Security payments was sent to the company director ‘due to a technical error with the system’.
The director said he only received a clarification after contacting the debt-collection office. He said he was surprised the government had not taken steps to make businesses aware of the error so that they could prevent duplicate payments.
‘The timing, given the effects of the pandemic, could not have been worse,’ he said. ‘People’s companies are suffering.’
He added that the ‘major issue is the fact they haven’t followed it up with people’ and said that many businesses’ accountants were on holiday and therefore ‘not around to notice the error’.
He also called on the government to give a timeframe for refunding any businesses that had made a second payment.
The government has said any duplicate payments will be refunded or credited against future payments.
Finance hub director Graham Chidlow said that on 9 August ‘businesses received Social Security reminders for Quarter A instead of Quarter B in error’.
He added: ‘The correct reminders for Quarter B have now been sent out and should have been received by businesses. We would like to apologise to the 1,400 businesses for this mistake.
‘Those that have received Quarter A reminders are being asked to disregard the letters.
‘In the event that a business has made a duplicate payment, it will be refunded or be credited against future payments. Businesses can contact the debt management team on 440088 for more support.’
