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Ali M-W
Da Tech(y ones)
3296 Posts |
 Posted - 21/11/2008 : 10:35:10
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I've emailed Polly Toynbee at the Guardian again today:
Hi Polly,
In your article 'A chance to do the right thing, without cheap bribes' you invite Brown to 'kickstart the economy by targeting the richest and giving to the poorest', asking if he 'dare borrow and spend to stimulate the economy enough to stop catastrophic job loss and deflation?' Sadly Brown's record to date, with anti-child poverty targets wildly adrift and the gulf between rich and poor widening under a Labour government, bodes ill.
Rightly, you urge Brown to kickstart the economy, arguing that 'it's time to raise child tax credits by at least the £3bn it would cost to lift half the children out of poverty by 2010' and that 'the working tax credit needs to rise too for all without children, who Labour has made absolutely poorer than in 1997'.
Rather than simply increasing tax credit awards, however, Gordon Brown needs to ensure awards are always correct, for the Tax Credit Casualties, a growing user group dedicated to supporting non-fault overpayment victims to receive justice in their disputes against HMRC's Tax Credit Office and see their system-caused overpayments written off, is receiving an unprecedented level of cries for help from claimants experiencing horrendous bullying, injustice and ineptitude from HMRC. Only today, representatives of our core group are consulting top, pro bono lawyers in London to initiate legal action, for which we hope to receive further public donations to establish a fighting fund and satisy our oppressors that we have indemnity against possible loss of our lawsuit. We cannot say more at this stage, other than that HMRC appears to be acting outside the law with its draconian recovery policies.
I have so much to tell you, my biggest challenge being to persuade you to contact us and follow this up. You will be shocked by what you hear about this so-called anti-poverty device, but not disappointed. With most other major national newspapers having spoken to us, ironically it is the Guardian which stands out as never having done so. You may be interested in the following articles, which I attach below. Please look us up at www.taxCC.org. There is so much we would like you to know and reveal on our behalves. Perhaps then Labour will follow Jon Cruddas's example and agree that a Tax Credit Overpayment Amnesty is a rightful Christmas gift to the poorest families in Britain.
Kind regards,
Alison Myers-Ward,
a National Co-ordinator for the Tax Credit Casualties, and ex-victim of tax credit overpayment.
Morpheus: They are the gatekeepers, they are guarding all the doors and holding all the keys.
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Ali M-W
Da Tech(y ones)
3296 Posts |
Posted - 21/11/2008 : 10:37:46
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'the following articles' being these (font changes won't appear):
From the Times, June 19 2008, Are you missing out on your tax credits?
Millions of people fail to claim benefits because the system is too complex
…Case study, £4,000 bill inspired lobby group
Sarah McCall co-formed the Tax Credit Casualties lobby group after being chased by Revenue & Customs for £4,000 that it had overpaid her and then demanded back.
The 38-year-old single parent, above, started claiming the working tax credit in 2003, but in February 2004 she increased her working hours. She says: “I called the Revenue straightaway to inform it of my change in circumstance, but it misrecorded what I told it. I ended up receiving too much in credit payments, and in 2005 I received a bill for nearly £4,000. I am still disputing the debt, even though the Revenue has threatened to take me to court.”
Ms McCall has taken her case to the Revenue's dispute resolution service and it is currently with the adjudicator.
Tax Credit Casualties was formed in 2005 and campaigns for an amnesty for overpayment debts. The group's website can be found at www.taxcc.org.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article4174151.ece
From the Sunday Times, July 27, 2008, Tax credits time bomb threatens to explode
The nation will face a bill for £2.8 billion
…Those who have been overpaid credits have been zealously pursued by tax officials. Claimants were ordered to pay back the money and told in writing: “You have no right of appeal against our decision.”
Those who tried to appeal complain of being rebuffed and threatened with court action. Faxes from an HMRC office that deals with disputes were headed “War Room”. Some of those being pursued by HMRC refused to pay back the money and an action group - Tax Credit Casualties - gave advice on how to obtain internal documents using data protection laws. Many of those documents have successfully been used to overturn HMRC’s decisions.
Chris Parker, 51, who lives near Caernarfon, Gwynedd, obtained records of his telephone calls and “screen grabs”. He discovered that his wife’s income had been zeroed by the computer, which commonly occurred when any new data were entered on a case file. The mistake meant that Parker and his wife Sharon, 46, were paid extra tax credits, but he says he never received any official documentation showing the error. Parker has been told he that does not have to pay back the £3,656 he was claimed to owe….
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4407258.ece
AND:
Bullying tax officials lose £2.8 billion
…The tax-credit system – at the heart of Brown’s programme to lift people out of poverty – was launched in April 2003. About £8 billion of tax credits have been overpaid to claimants to date, of which only £2.7 billion has been clawed back; £1 billion has already been written off and HMRC’s latest accounts show a provision to write off a further £1.8 billion if necessary.
Alison Myers-Ward, of Tax Credit Casualties, which has been helping victims with data protection requests, said: “Officials have been completely ruthless in pursuing people for this money and it has destroyed lives.”
HMRC said its tax-credit system had been “working well” over the past two years.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4407512.ece
AND:
A £2.8 billion farce over tax credits
Taxpayers foot bill for Revenue’s ineptitude
When the political obituaries of Gordon Brown are written, the Kafkaesque system of tax credits that he introduced as chancellor will merit a chapter in itself. Today we report that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is preparing to write off £2.8 billion mistakenly overpaid in tax credits to more than 1.5m people. Worse, evidence obtained by some of those from whom HMRC is demanding repayment reveals a chaotic, error-strewn service, capable of enormous mistakes even when repeatedly provided with accurate information by claimants.
A system supposed to help those on low incomes has turned into a nightmare. A department that specialises in retrospective taxation and harassing the law-abiding cannot keep its own affairs in order. Last year HMRC lost two discs containing bank details and National Insurance numbers of every family in Britain claiming child benefit – 25m individuals. Paul Gray, its chairman, resigned but with a big pay-off and a pension pot of more than £2m.
These problems are not confined solely to HMRC. This government has done little to reform an inefficient public sector and in many cases has made it worse. That matters at any time but particularly now, when private firms are being squeezed and long-term prosperity requires that young talent is attracted to the wealth-creating sector. Any government must ensure that taxpayers’ money is put to good use. This time it failed spectacularly.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article4407082.ece
Also from the Mirror:
Jon Cruddas has openly supported an Amnesty for non-fraudulent overpayments. On 13th July 2008, In his regular Sunday Mirror column, the Labour MP for Dagenham and former Labour Party deputy leadership contender, called for all Tax Credit overpayments to be written off. The article, 'Go Easy On Tax Victims', states "It's time to wipe the slate clean on these so-called debts. Let's write them off - and make sure that the [Tax Credit] system really does do us credit."
…and the Sun:
Darling in £3bn tax write-off
CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling is set to write off nearly £3BILLION in a huge tax credits fiasco.
Officials wrote to more than 1.5million people saying they had been overpaid and must pay back the money.
But many victims used data protection laws to view their own files. They found a catalogue of blunders by HM Revenue and Customs. They included computer cockups that triggered overpayments. Mr Darling is now poised to write off £2.8billion. About £8billion was overpaid and £2.7billion has been clawed back.
Alison Myers-Ward, of help group Tax Credit Casualties, said: “Officials were completely ruthless in pursuing people.”
Tax credits were launched in 2003 to haul people out of poverty.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/article1477991.ece
"Tax Credit Casualties"
MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE
19 November 2008
Tax Credit Casualties Addressing Child Poverty
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently published a report stating that child poverty costs at least £25billion each year in losses to the Exchequer and in reduced GDP.
Thanks to the intervention of Tax Credit Casualties, just the last 33 cases they have progressed to write-off have saved those claimants £152,900 – which in turn has saved the Exchequer, as every pound saved for claimants by Tax Credit Casualties helps to reduce child poverty.
Paula Dean, Tax Credit Casualties’ award-winning case worker, said: ‘We will continue to help claimants fight cases where they believe overpayments were caused by HMRC’s errors and we will continue to fight for an amnesty on all such overpayments. It is not in the best interest of our society to seek to recover these overpayments when recovery means children will suffer poverty. And from the work of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation it is clearly not in the interest of the public purse to push these families back into poverty.’
Tax Credit Casualties work to address child poverty by helping the victims of tax credit overpayments know their rights, and fight recovery of overpayments which are not the claimants fault. The errors are often caused by software problems, HMRC operator error and faults inherent to the tax credit system itself. Our work helps families on low incomes having to choose between putting food on the table and shoes on their children’s feet, or repaying a debt they didn’t cause and are not responsible for.
Paula also said: “We encourage anyone else who finds themselves in this or a similar situation with tax credits to contact us via our website address which is www.TaxCC.org
For further information contact:
Sarah McCall
National Coordinator
07947439959 (out of hours included)
Note to editors: Full details of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report can be found at http://www.jrf.org.uk/pressroom/releases/231008.asp
Tax Credit Casualties
www.TaxCC.org
Let's see what comes of that.
Morpheus: They are the gatekeepers, they are guarding all the doors and holding all the keys.
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To the GUARDIAN
