26-11-04

Barrett demands answers on Tax Credit fiasco

John Barrett, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, today demanded to know from the Chancellor Gordon Brown, how many families inEdinburghhad been cut off from their tax credits because of the failure of the Government’s telephone hotline.
 
Tax credits are paid to lower income families, with some 25,000 families inEdinburghreceiving Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit or both.  However, the Government has admitted that it cut off tax credits to 200,000 families throughout the UK because they did not report any changes to their income to the Inland Revenue by the 30th September deadline.
 
Yet new official answers have shown that the tax credit phone line could not cope with the volume of calls made in September.  During the month, 153,000 calls to the hotline were abandoned and 8,000 received an ‘engaged’ tone.  A staggering 578,000 calls to the hotline have been abandoned throughout this year.
 
John Barrett has now tabled a number of parliamentary questions to the Chancellor, asking how many families inEdinburghhave had their money stopped because of Government’s bungling.
 
John Barrett said:
 
“It is outrageous that hard working families, many of which are heavily dependent on tax credits, are being deprived of their money because of the Government’s failings.  How can people be expected to declare changes to the Inland Revenue when the helpline set up cannot cope with the number of calls?
 
“The Government must now extend the deadline for people to declare changes to their income.  That way, families inEdinburghand throughout theUKwill have the chance to get the money the need and deserve.”
 
ENDS
 
Notes to Editors
 
• During September 2003 - September 2004, 578,000 calls to tax credit contact centres were abandoned and a further 86,000 received an engaged tone.

• The worst month by far was September 2004, when 153,000 calls were abandoned and a further 8,000 received an engaged tone.

• Parliamentary answers received by the Liberal Democrats revealed that around 200,000 families stand to have their tax credit cut-off.  Many of the families now stand to lose over £1000 a year.  For many, it will mean a big cut in the family budget just before Christmas.  The complexity of the new tax credits means that not only circumstance changes have to be reported throughout the year but also that annual reassessments must be completed.  The families will lose out on their cash because they have not reported any changes to their income to the Inland Revenue by the 30th September deadline.

Parliamentary answer:
17 Nov 2004: Column 1510W

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many calls were made to the child and working tax credit helpline in each month since August 2003; and how many and what percentage of calls (a) were handled within 20 seconds, (b) were handled in more than 20 seconds, (c) reached an engaged tone and (d) were abandoned. [193924]

John Healey: The following figures cover the tax credit contact centres in Great Britain.

Table 1-Number of calls Thousand	Received 1	Handled within 20 seconds(20)	Handled in more than 20 seconds	Reaching engaged tone	Abandoned 3
September 2003	1,259	875	321	9	63
October 2003	1.139	983	121	4	35
November 2003	1,158	852	250	11	56
December 2003	902	728	150	9	9
January 2004	1,132	962	145	4	25
February 2004	1,087	1,004	61	5	21
March 2004	1,475	1,406	48	4	22
April 2004	1,869	1,662	162	13	44
May 2004	2,101	1,825	239	5	37
June 2004	2,321	1,956	330	6	34
July 2004	2,149	1,747	362	4	41
August 2004	1,936	1,755	158	4	23
September 2004	2,774	1,897	723	8	153