HMRC sends string of letters to wrong address demanding £7,500 payment

A woman was left distressed after wrongly receiving a string of letters from HMRC demanding a £7,500 payment. Her daughter reached out to HRMC asking for urgent help with the issue.

She said: "My mother is receiving letters from you addressed to someone else demanding money. She has returned 20 letters to you but they keep coming.

"This week she received a bailiff letter and is getting very distressed. She's tried calling you. Please advise urgently?" HMRC responded to say the woman had been "doing the right thing" by returning the letters.

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A representative asked: "Does she know which department is issuing these letters?" The daughter replied to explain that all the letters had been in brown envelopes until there was white envelope from a debt collection firm "for unpaid HMRC balance of £7418.54". She added: "She's very upset and we're very concerned this is affecting her health and credit score."

The tax authority then reassured that as she had been returning the letters, HMRC would be investigating the problem. The group said she could escalate the matter by contacting the helpline or webchat, as "they'll take more details of the letters from you".

HMRC sent her a link to a webpage for making enquiries about income tax, explaining she could click a button to 'Ask HMRC online' to talk to an advisor about the problem. But the daughter said she had tried this and the service said there were no advisors available.

She said: "This is incredibly urgent and we need to speak to someone now please." HMRC encouraged her to keep trying as "once one becomes available they'll start the chat". They added that the service runs until 7.30pm.