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Rennie calls for tax credit shake-up
May 31, 2006 11:49 AM
After today's release of new tax credit figures, Willie Rennie, Liberal Democrat MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, is calling for urgent action to address the failing system.
Today's figures show that the Government has overpaid tax credits by £1.8 billion. This is the second year in a row that the system has resulted in massive overpayments.
Today's figures show that in Dunfermline and West Fife, 2,417 families are in receipt of tax credits, which have been overpaid to the tune of £1.6 million.
The Liberal Democrats have published a Five Point Plan designed to make tax credits work more effectively.
Willie Rennie said:
"Barely a week goes by without a constituent turning up at my advice surgeries having experienced problems with their tax credits. The problem is that families that are overpaid see the money clawed back by the Government. It is very difficult for families on low incomes to deal with a system that does not give them a stable, predictable income.
"Too many hard working families on low incomes are being plunged into debt and poverty by the very system which the Government claimed was designed to help them.
"The Five Point Plan for the tax credit system sets out the most urgent steps the government should be taking and is based on first-hand experiences of constituents who have had their lives turned upside down by the system.
"Perhaps the most pressing of these is the need for an immediate end to so-called 'systemic maladministration' - the unacceptable practice of automatic recovery of tax credits by the Revenue without even checking if the overpayments are recoverable. There should be a statutory right of appeal against overpayments, with all overpayments due to official error being immediately written off.
"I hope today's figures will shake the tax credit office into action and force ministers to take responsibility for the mess we find ourselves in today.
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