There was a 31 July deadline for those who were told to contact HMRC to renew their tax credits. If someone missed the deadline, HMRC will stop their tax credit payments and send them a statement of account. This will tell them that HMRC have stopped the payments and also ask for all of the tax credits paid since the start of 2017/18 tax year to be paid back.

Victoria Todd, senior technical manager at LITRG, said: ‘Provided they contact HMRC within 30 days of the date on their statement of account and renew, the tax authority will process the renewal and reinstate their 2017/18 claim back to 6 April 2017.

‘If someone is self-employed and does not yet have final details for the last tax year, they must give an estimate and then either confirm the estimate, or file actual figures, by 31 January 2018.’

If an individual misses this 30-day deadline, they can only renew and secure their annual entitlement for 2017/18 if they complete their renewal by 31 January 2018 and can satisfy HMRC that they have ‘good cause’ for missing both the 31 July deadline and the extra 30-day deadline.

Anyone who cannot demonstrate good cause for being late will be asked to repay all tax credit payments made to them from the start of the tax year. They will then need to make a fresh tax credits claim if they want to carry on receiving tax credits, but that will only be backdated a maximum of 31 days.

LITRG points out that the situation is more complicated for claimants who live in a universal credit full service area where it may be no longer possible to make a new claim for tax credits.

It recommends that anyone in these areas who misses the 30-day extension period and is concerned that they can no longer claim tax credits should contact HMRC or a local welfare rights specialist as soon as possible before making a claim for universal credit.