Tax Credit Chaos Still Failing Local Families

Councillor David Foster, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Blackburn with Darwen Council has today called for a total overhaul of the way tax credits are awarded after new figures revealed that over 6,000 local families in Blackburn and Darwen are still being forced to payback over £5 million worth of tax credits, due to overpayments made by HM Revenue and Customs. He also revealed that over 3,000 families were being underpaid by a total of £1.7 million

Cllr. Foster said:

"It is simply unacceptable, that one year on, over £5 million of tax credits in Blackburn and Darwen are still being overpaid. In some areas, the situation is getting worse not better.

"Last May, the Paymaster General claimed that the system was working well for the vast majority of families. But today's figures show that the Minister is clearly in denial - in actual fact nationwide 44%, over 2.8 million people, received incorrect tax credit payments. In our area nearly 47% received incorrect tax credit payments

"The Minister has known of the systemic failures in the tax credit system for years and today's figures are yet more evidence that too little has been done to rectify them. Recent modifications to the system are too little too late.

"Meanwhile Dawn Primarolo continues to bury her head in the sand and blocks parliamentary scrutiny of this crucial issue. New ministerial leadership is now needed to introduce a radical overhaul of the way tax credits are administered."

NOTE

You can see our proposals to improve the Tax Credit System by looking in the Policy Document Section of our website