Foster hits out at Government's disgraceful tax credit record

2.16.25pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 23rd May 2007

Bath's MP, Don Foster, has hit out at the government's disgraceful tax credit record after the government published records showing they overpaid £400,000 of tax credits in three years to residents of Bath and wrongly paid out over £9 billion across the country.

At the same time they failed to pay nearly 1,000 Bath families the tax credit awards they were entitled to. This amounted to a massive underpayment of £700,000.

Commenting, Don said:

"The government's record on tax credits here in Bath is a disgrace. Gordon Brown has presided over a tax credits fiasco that is of his own making.

"Not only have taxpayers in Bath lost out, but the government is now trying to claw back money from people on very low incomes - even when it was government mistakes which led to the errors.

"The government has overpaid residents of Bath £400,000, and underpaid others £700,000.

"The government's shambolic tax credit system leads to uncertainty for many families in Bath as they have no way of knowing what they will receive. I am campaigning for a simple system of fixed term awards of six months so that families know what they are getting and get what they are entitled to."

Notes:

1) Nationally the government has overpaid £5.7billion in tax credits, but Liberal Democrat research also shows that the Government has incorrectly paid out around £3.6bn in fraud and error since 2003 - most of which will never be recovered. This means over £9bn has been paid in error, of which up to £5bn will be lost.

2) Overpayments and Underpayments by local authority and constituency can be found by following the link below.

Related Link:

Overpayments and Underpayments by local authority and constituency.