Unexpected £250 bonus was nothing but trouble

So I rang Aviva, finally getting through to the department dealing with old Sun Life clients. it turns out I wasn’t the only one apparently who had an “Only” cheque, and was promised a new one would be with me within a few weeks. It’s now the middle of November and despite two further phone calls still no cheque.

I appreciate that before Aviva sent the cheque I knew nothing about the miscalculation. Quite how it came to recalculate an endowment policy from 2002 is a mystery. I quite surprised myself that I still had the endowment paperwork. Now I do know though, I would quite like the money because I have spent a fair bit of time chasing it.

I would be grateful for your assistance in putting this to bed after 19 years.

Jill replies

I’m not sure whether to find your experience heart warming because a giant insurance company honestly confesses to getting its sums wrong when calculating the final bonus due on your policy nearly 20 years ago, or alarming because it is clearly as bad at maths as me. It then forgets how to write out a cheque properly.

I asked Aviva to reissue the cheque without the errant “Only”. It decided it was safer to pay the money straight into your bank account, and added an extra £100 in compensation for the time it has taken to sort out, which you have donated to charity.

Help me solve £12k tussle with the taxman

I left employment with Aviva in November 2019 and had no further pay from the company. I was always PAYE.

In May I had a letter from HM Customs & Revenue telling me to complete a tax return. I queried this because my income was below £100,000 and I am PAYE, meaning I should not have to complete a self-assessment tax return.

HMRC said my income was above £100,000 because I received £12,561 from Aviva in 20/21. I explained that I left Aviva in November 2019. HMRC told me to speak to Aviva.

Aviva initially said that I was owed £12,561, but I had a feeling this was incorrect and after a number of further calls the insurer confirmed it had made a mistake. Aviva agreed that it should not have told HMRC that I had any income paid by it for the 20/21 tax year.

Now six months later, and after 30 phone calls and 36 emails to Aviva and more than 20 phone calls to HMRC, I am still in exactly the same position. Aviva says it has informed HMRC that I had no earnings from the insurer in 20/21 while HMRC says it has not received anything to change my record.

I am two months away from the self assessment deadline, and I will have to complete a return because HMRC thinks I earned over £100,000. I will also lose £5,180 of my personal allowance, which reduces for every pound above the £100,000 threshold. Please can you use your magic to resolve this nightmare once and for all?

Jill replies

Aviva certainly seems to have been very busy this year, trying to hand out money whether it was owed or not.

Your personal allowance goes down by £1 for every £2 that your adjusted net income is above £100,000. Your income from Aviva in the 2020/21 tax year was £97,799, and the extra £12,561 mistakenly allocated but not actually paid to you would have taken you well over the £100,000 threshold.

I sent HMRC the correspondence you had from Aviva, confirming that it didn’t owe you and hadn’t paid you an extra £12,541, and the form it submitted to HMRC to amend your tax record. Two weeks later the incorrect payment was still showing on your online record, but HMRC confirmed by letter to you and by email to me that the £12,561 will not be added to your income for the 2020/21 tax year and that you do not need to complete a self assessment tax return. If you have further problems, please come back to me.

Who’s watching out for mum’s TV, Currys?

In early October my mother went to Curry’s in Bromley to buy a television. She paid a total of £388.99 for the TV and installation. The television never arrived, but a week later the installation team did. It seems the salesman took all my mother’s details incorrectly — both email and home address — but strangely the installation team were given the correct one. Apparently the TV was delivered elsewhere. The installation team turned up a second time a week later but there was still no TV.

Understandably my mother got fed up and cancelled the order. She hasn’t had a refund yet despite numerous online chats and visits to the shop. I have spent at least three hours trying to resolve this. Each chat finishes with “we will be-in contact” but Currys never is.

Jill replies

The Currys salesman said he would email a receipt for the TV to your mother but because he had taken down her email address incorrectly she never received one. I forwarded Currys a copy of your mother’s credit card statement and asked it to refund her money.

The retailer contacted you and your mother the same day to apologise and to say that the refund had been processed and would be visible on your mother’s account within five working days.

Your mother wants nothing more to do with the store in Bromley, so Currys has offered a further 10 per cent off if she places a new order online. You are planning to help her with this in January.

Barclays blocked my euros deal

I made a €50,000 transfer to Currencies Direct which went through without problem on November 5. Three days later I made a further transfer of €50,000 between Barclays UK and Barclays Germany which Barclays Bank referred to its fraud unit.

That same day I had a call from the Barclays fraud unit but unfortunately I was unable to understand the caller and I told her so at least four or five times. Barclays is always warning me that if I don’t know or understand where a call is coming from to put the phone down. Instead I visited my local Barclays branch in Alfreton in Derbyshire where one very helpful bank official spent the best part of two hours on the phone trying to resolve my problem. He informed me that my money was held within Barclays’ Falcon unit and that someone would ring me on the same day. A few days later, late on a Friday afternoon, someone did call to advise that he would try to return the money to my account the next day or Monday.

I visited the Alfreton branch again the following Tuesday and the same staff member again spent two hours plus speaking with someone from the Falcon department. He told me that my money was held in a Sundry account.

I asked why -— if they know where my money was — could it not be returned to my account without delay. I was told that they were working on it and the matter would be resolved by the close of business on November 18. Needless to say, the money is not in my account nor have I received any communication from Barclays as to when it will be.

Barclays has given me £200 as a goodwill gesture. As I wished to trade my euros for sterling and the pound has risen nearly 3 cents against the euro since this all started, I have lost approaching £6,000 due to the incompetence of Barclays. This does not include damage to my reputation or credibility with Currencies Direct.

I am 78 and the stress of trying to resolve this problem is beginning to tell on me and my wife. I would appreciate any help you can offer to help to resolve this matter and obtain my money.

Jill replies

My initial fear was that you had become involved in some sort of fraud. Barclays confirmed that its Falcon system, a tool to detect suspicious payment activity, did not like the look of your second payment, so the bank tried to contact you on November 8 to verify that the payment was genuine and that you were certain that its destination was legitimate. Unfortunately you were unable to understand the person calling you and did not confirm that you wanted the payment to go ahead, so Barclays held on to your money. It has now returned your €50,000 to your account.

Barclays refused to pay you £6,000 for missing out on gains that you might have made through currency trading, saying that its terms and conditions preclude the bank being held liable for circumstances where there is a perceived loss of profit or opportunity. However it offered a total of £400 in apology for the delay and inconvenience, which you accepted.

Can we help you?

Please email your questions to Jill Insley at questionofmoney@sundaytimes.co.uk or write to Question of Money, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF. Please send only copies of original documents. Advice is offered without legal responsibility. We regret Jill cannot reply to everyone who contacts her.