Sanders - Over a million and half families have been paid wrong Tax Credits at least twice

MP for Torbay Adrian Sanders has today criticised HM Revenue and Customs, the Government office responsible for administering all Tax Credits. Over a million and a half families have been paid the wrong amount in tax credits at least twice according to new figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats.

The figures from the three years in which tax credit awards have been finalised by the Government show that:

· 22% of all families (more than one in five) claiming tax credits have been overpaid or underpaid more than once.

· 1.4 million families were overpaid more than once and 260,000 of those have been overpaid every year (three consecutive years).

· 340,000 have been underpaid more than once and 28,000 of those have been underpaid three years running.

Adrian commented:

"These figures are an absolute disgrace and reveal the depth of incompetence at the Treasury and the mess Gordon Brown left behind.   These families deserve better. It is difficult enough to make ends meet without paying for the Government’s mistakes".

"Broken down locally these figures mean around 4,000 families in Torbay will have experienced some kind of problem with their tax credits. I am approached by literally hundreds of constituents a year who are experiencing financial hardship as a result of HMRC mistakes- that is unacceptable".