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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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AM hits out at government's disgraceful tax credit record in Swansea
May 25, 2007 12:00 AM
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has hit out at the government's disgraceful tax credit record after the government published records showing they overpaid £4.5m of tax credits to residents of Swansea
At the same time they failed to pay over 3000 Swansea families the tax credit awards they were entitled to. This amounted to a massive underpayment of £1.9m
Peter Black said,
"The government's record on tax credits in Swansea is a disgrace. Gordon Brown has presided over a tax credits fiasco that is of his own making.
"Not only have taxpayers in Swansea lost out, but the government is now trying to claw back money from people on very low incomes - even when it was government mistakes which led to the errors.
"The government has overpaid residents of Swansea £4.5m, and underpaid others £1.9m.
"The government's shambolic tax credit system leads to uncertainty for many families in Swansea as they have no way of knowing what they will receive. I am campaigning for a simple system of fixed term awards of six months so that families know what they are getting and get what they are entitled to."
Ends
Notes to Editors:
Overpayments and Underpayments by local authority and constituency for 2005/06 can be found at: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtc-geog-payments-0506.pdf
Nationally the government has overpaid £5.7billion in tax credits over the last three years, but Liberal Democrat research also shows that the Government has incorrectly paid out around £3.6bn in fraud and error since 2003 - most of which will never be recovered. This means over £9bn has been paid in error, of which up to £5bn will be lost.
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