•1,036,000 claims were overpaid by a total of £917,000,000

1,036,000 claims were overpaid by a total of £917,000,000

Are HMRC Try To Bury New Overpayment Figures

HMRC have published Tax Credit overpayment figures for 2008-09 today, trying to slip them out under the cover of their latest data loss scandal.

Yes folks, HMRC would prefer to admit sending out other peoples data to 50,000 Tax Credit claimants rather than be up-front about the latest overpayment statistics. We will be writing to the Information Commissioner about this latest data loss, but for now let’s concentrate on the overpayment figures …

Here’s a summary of the Tax Credit overpayment figures for 2008-2009 :

There were a total of 6,996,000 claims for Tax Credits
1,036,000 claims were overpaid by a total of £917,000,000
This means that 14.81% of all Tax Credit claims were overpaid
842,000 claims were overpaid less than £500
Claims overpaid between £500 and £1,000 were 212,000
147,000 claims overpaid £1,000 – £2,000
85,000 very unhappy claimants will be repaying between £2,000 and £5,000
Some 20,000 claimants have overpayments of greater than £5,000

Once again, we are reminded of the sheer number of lives that are being ruined by Tax Credit overpayments.

Remember how you felt until you found Tax Credit Casualties? Please spread the word and do whatever you can to let people know that they can get help on our website. Let’s help as many victims as we can!

By the The Tax Credit Casualties An organisation run by and for victims of tax credit overpayments and subsequent unfair recovery. We offer support to people receiving overpayment demands, to enable them to know their rights and dispute automatic recovery. We also campaign and lobby cross-party MPs to support a full write-off of all non-fraudulent overpayments. We are currently setting up an account to fundraise towards our work. We are following up the possibility of pro bono legal representation with a class action, and currently have a high profile lawyer interested in supporting us.

The Tax Credit Casualties Letter To David Cameron

The Tax Credit Casualties Letter To David Cameron

Tax Credit Casualties are in the process of writing to many MPs in our new Government. We thought you’d like to see the letter that David Cameron has received from us this morning, so we’ve published it below.

It’s a long letter, but worth reading because we believe that it says just about everything that can be said about Tax Credit overpayments and how unjust the system truly is. Why not send a copy to your own MP, asking them to do their best to make sure that the Government acts on what we have written?

Read the full letter here

Tax Credit Casualties Support with help and advice