Tax Credits

EDM number 268 in 2005-06, proposed by Tom Brake on 07/06/2005.

That this House notes statistics recently published by Revenue and Customs showing that a third of all tax credits are overpaid; finds this level of overpayment to be unacceptable and calls on Revenue and Customs to clarify what proportion of overpayments were due to official error; further notes that this has resulted in nearly two million families having to repay on average over £1,000 each; is particularly concerned at the detrimental effect that this will have on low income families trying to manage a budget; believes that the policy of reassessing income at the end of the award should be revised; and calls on Revenue and Customs to improve both its communication with families involved and its procedure for recovery of overpayments when this is necessary.

This motion has been signed by a total of 58 MPs.