Dundee LibDems slam Labour's failures on Tax Credits (Dundee Liberal Democrats)

Dundee Liberal Democrats <info@dundeelibdems.org.uk>

Dundee LibDems slam Labour's failures on Tax Credits

February 6, 2008 9:36 PM

Dundee LibDems slam Labour's failures on helping families

Dundee Liberal Democrats have today (Wednesday 6th February) criticised the lack of improvement in the way the tax credit system works, following a report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee.

The fifth report since the system started in 2003 says nearly two million families a year are still being placed in debt by tax credit overpayments and that no targets have been put in place by HM Revenue and Customs to cut losses due to fraud or errors.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Danny Alexander MP, said, "The Treasury must stop burying its head in the sand and finally accept that Gordon Brown's brainchild is failing families.

"The Tax Credit system is overly complex and a mystery to all but the special advisers in the Treasury. The Government must scrap payments that fluctuate many times in one year and finally deliver the financial stability hard-working families need for piece of mind."

Here in Dundee, LibDem City Council Group Leader, Cllr Fraser Macpherson, said, "Dundee Liberal Democrats have long campaigned against the failures of Labour's Tax Credits scheme. It is failing the families it is supposed to help."