HMRC Post Office Account Deadline
A reminder that from 1 December 2021, HMRC will stop making payments of Child Benefit, Guardian’s Allowance and tax credits into Post Office card accounts (POca). The POca scheme is a service provided by the Post Office on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Affected recipients have until 30 November 2021 to notify HMRC of the new account details so they can continue to receive their payments. This can be an existing account or if required, a new bank, building society or credit union account should be set-up. HMRC estimates that are still 24,000 payees with a POca. HMRC has been writing to affected customers since October 2019 to advise of this change, but time is running out and recipients’ risk having their payments paused.
HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said:
‘Time is running out for customers who have been using a Post Office card account to get payments from us. They need to give us their new account details now to avoid their payments being suspended. They can update their details online or by calling us, and they need to be very careful to avoid handing over personal details to fraudsters contacting them and claiming to be from HMRC.’
The DWP announced in September 2021 that it has agreed a 12-month extension for its customers who use a Post Office card account. If any HMRC customer also receives DWP payments, this extension only applies to DWP-related payments.
The scheme had been set to end in November 2021 but has now been partly extended but only for DWP payments. The extension is for 12 months and recipients who are unable to open a bank account will be migrated onto a new Payment Exception Service.
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