In the Ludlow constituency, 3,800 out of the 8,100 tax credit claimants in the year to 5 April 2005 were either underpaid or overpaid their tax credits, said Mr. Dunne. He added: "The continuing pattern of Government incompetence beggars belief. These official figures mean that 47%, almost half, of all tax credits paid to my constituents were wrong. This is equivalent to 5.8% of the entire electorate in the constituency have suffering confusion, worry and financial distress, thanks to the shambolic administration of Gordon Brown's pet policy.
Mr Dunne gave examples from cases brought to him by his constituents, including a lady who was told last month by the Tax Credit Office in Preston to look on the amounts she had been overpaid for the previous six months "as an interest-free loan", since officials were unable to adjust her records because of the failure of the computer system. The Ludlow MP called on the government "to sort out this mess" before any more distress is caused to vulnerable claimants.
The figures came to light in a debate in the House of Commons this afternoon, called by the Conservatives which highlighted the degree of mismanagement of an income support system on which millions of vulnerable families rely. In the past two years, some of Britain's poorest households have had to return £2 billion worth of overpayments due to the incompetent administration of the scheme
