Dyslexia and debt: Helping Emma with Self Assessment

Emma has dyslexia and finds using online services difficult.

A change in circumstances

After her son’s father died, she became a single mother. She had to sell the family home. Her and her son moved into a one-bedroom flat. 

A couple of years later she became self-employed,, carrying out work such as gardening, cleaning and childcare.

Srruggling with online services

Although Emma registered as self-employed, she did not understand HMRC’s letters telling her she needed to complete a tax return. When she contacted HMRC for help she was pointed towards online resources. Because of her dyslexia and lack of digital skills, the online resources left her feeling even more confused and anxious.

Letters continued to arrive from HMRC, with penalties for not submitting returns. Emma paid the penalties as they came through to her, hoping this would help, but the letters and the penalties did not stop coming. Over a prolonged period of time, Emma ended up paying over £4,700 in penalties to HMRC. Her annual income was only £6,000.

Finding help

Emma finally turned to her sister for help after being unable to claim benefits due to her tax records not being up to date. When Emma’s sister contacted TaxAid on her behalf, Emma had been scraping by on the bare minimum as her work had dried up during the pandemic.

We helped her complete her tax returns and successfully appealed against the filing penalties she had received. This meant that Emma received a full refund of the penalties – a total of £4,711.17.

Lifting the financial burden

Emma was finally free of the tax stress she endured for so long. Thanks to our help she no longer had the immense financial burden paying tax bills on a low income. She was left in a much better financial position with a clearer understanding of how to manage her taxes through Self Assessment