Tax credits – children's charity urges repayment 'amnesty'
08.09.05

Following publication of the Public Accounts Committee's report into the operation of the new tax credits system, a leading children's charity has repeated its call for an amnesty where mistaken overpayments have been made and fraud is unproven.

The Public Accounts Committee report concludes that "the operation of Tax Credits has proved unsatisfactory for a significant minority of claimants who were disadvantaged and who cannot understand how much they are due or why in so many cases such large overpayments have been made."

Kate Green OBE, Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), said:

"While CPAG welcomes the extra money that tax credits have brought to some of the poorest families, particularly those with children, the system has not operated as well as it should.

"This report highlights once again the level of overpayments and the hardship caused to thousands of families where repayments have been sought.

"CPAG are extremely concerned about the way overpayments have been reclaimed and have asked HM Revenue & Customs to apply proper discretion in line with their own code of practice.

"In cases where the Revenue is to blame for the overpayment and no fraud has been proven, we repeat our call for an amnesty on the recovery of payments.

"CPAG has recently received legal advice that HM Revenue & Customs have not been complying with their own code of practice when it comes to reclaiming tax credit overpayments. As a result we are currently considering taking a test case."

For further information please contact:

Alex Belardinelli
CPAG Press Officer
Tel. 020 7812 5216 or 07816 909302
abelardinelli@cpag.org.uk