Working Tax Credit System Costs Taxpayer £500 Million And Counting!
While the Working Tax Credit system was a great idea in principle, in practice it has become the biggest “White Elephant†since the Millennium Dome. Having cost the tax payer £500 million in write-offs so far, it has been reported that there is a further £1.5 billion which has been earmarked as “not recoverableâ€, taking the total write offs to £2 billion!
While there has been a massive £47 billion paid out to claimants in the first three years of the system, an astonishing £5.8 billion was over payments. Even though the system was created to assist low income families to get by, many have received aggressive letters claiming the money back, even though this has been due to mistakes at the Working Tax Credit offices. Many have been forced to repay a set figure per month and are even worse off than they were prior to the system being introduced.
The problems seem to arise from the fact that payments are adjusted on an ongoing basis, and even though claimants are quite correctly informing the authorities of their change in circumstances, errors and delays seem to be common place. Many claimants have been shocked to receive sizeable repayment claims, some in the tens of thousands of pounds!
There have been promises that the situation is in hand and improvements have been made, although this has yet to filter through to the business end of the system - we live in hope.
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