Rags to Riches to Rags

BBC NEWS | Politics | Nearly £2bn tax credits overpaid

Nearly £2bn of taxpayers' money has been overpaid under Gordon Brown's child and working tax credit schemes, says HM Revenue and Customs.

The official figures show that, of £13.5bn paid out last year, £1.9bn were overpayments benefiting 1.9m claimants.

And 40,000 of those who were overpaid got £5,000 or more while 714,000 were underpaid a total of £464,000.

Ex-social security minister Frank Field said it was hard to defend tax credits if £1 in £6 was "wrongly allocated".

I mentioned Family Tax Credits back in April. Funnily enough, the friends I mentioned in that piece have to pay back over £5000.

Revenue and customs said the "vast majority" of overpayments occurred because of rising incomes as more people moved into work, the rest were due to computer problems when the system was brought in two years ago.

Blame the tax payer... Blame the computer system... Anything but their own incompetence or a tax credit system that is just a complete pile of festering bollocks. How the hell can you run a tax credit system based upon what people think they are going to earn in the coming year, then ask for it all back when they earn more than they said they would.

"Clearly, a key challenge now is to encourage the reporting of such rises to the Revenue more quickly, in order to minimise people's overpayments in the future," the statement said.

Oh come on! People are inherently lazy, especially so when it comes to giving money back to the government. We have all grown up with a PAYE taxation system. We expect to take home our wages plus whatever the state gives us and be square with El Gordo at the end of the tax year.

Clearly, a key challenge now is to come up with a system that isn't inherently flawed. Tax credits are a good thing. They lift the poorest of our nation out of poverty. Except, under the Brownite system, the revenue try to extract £5000 from somebody who earns around £18K a year, putting them straight back into poverty.

It's what I have come to expect from the bunch of dribbling, arse faced idiots who are currently running this country.