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Following on from our letter to David Cameron, I’ve put together a letter that everyone can send to their MPs, asking them to support our call for an amnesty.

The letter is published below. You can download a copy here, in Word format, to edit and send to your MP: Download MP Amnesty Support Letter.

We are asking you to send these letters to your MP because we can’t! If we were to write to every MP, our letters would be ignored because they can only act on behalf of their constituents.

But if you send this letter to your MP, it’s a completely different story! Not sure who your MP is? Find out here!

Please take this small amount of time to do something for your campaign, even if you’ve never joined in before. It will make a difference. We’re doing what we can, but now it’s up to you! Be a Tax Credit overpayment rebel …

[Name of your MP] MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

[Insert date]

Dear [Name of your MP] MP,

I am writing as a member of your constituency to ask for your help, on behalf of both myself and the national user group Tax Credit Casualties (www.taxcc.org ) in ensuring that this Government ends the unfair, punitive recovery of tax credit overpayments caused by system errors.

Tax credits were meant to reduce poverty and make work pay but up to £5.8 billion of tax credits goes uncollected each year, according to the previous Labour government’s figures.

The Citizens Advice Bureau has found that only 1 in 5 entitled people actually claim working tax credit, many fearful of bureaucratic errors and unsolicited future debt.  Advertised as “Money With Your Name On It” to offset low wages and provide vital support for lower income families, countless honest workers trusted HM Revenue and Customs to correctly calculate their entitlement, and spent their money in good faith providing for their dependents.  The draconian recovery tactics now used by HMRC to snatch back historic overpayments strikes terror into the heart of innocent people and would be the envy of any dictatorship; totally inappropriate to a nation whose pride is its sense of fair play.  HMRC is allowed to endlessly admit sloppy mistakes on overpaid claims, yet continually absolve itself of all responsibility, being its own judge and jury. Millions of pounds are being spent in the pursuit of money which has already gone, whilst the low take-up of tax credits is marvelled at, analysed and dissected, and further money thrown at encouraging reluctant lower income families to claim.  Meanwhile the obvious solution is ignored.

We need this coalition government to grant an immediate Amnesty of all non-fraudulent overpayment claims – supported not simply by our new government, but all parties, for the good of our nation.  If shame and compassion haven’t to date prompted an urgent write-off, the staggering long-term costs of deadlock dispute should.  One look at the balance sheet for recovery versus write-off should soon convince any critic that under the current, draconian recovery policy, the Treasury’s resources are diverted and overstretched on an endless bureaucratic trail that invariably ends up costing more than is recovered from the hapless overpayment victim. The system cannot move forward because it is chaotically busy looking back, haemorrhaging scarce public money as it goes.

Despite many overpayment victims being kept unaware of their rights, they soon sense injustice and growing numbers are empowering themselves to fight back.  Hence, Tax Credit Casualties (TCC) has grown from a handful of founding members to a multiple award-nominated national voluntary user group whose membership runs into thousands, and whose free dispute pack has – with their blessing – been begged, stolen and borrowed by welfare rights, tax justice groups and unions as a template for their own self-help booklets.  Over 100,000 unique visitors have accessed their website, and 1000s of people have acknowledged their support in winning their cases.

The beauty of consumer action is that every successful case simply adds to the overwhelming body of evidence TCC now has that the system, for all the rhetoric of its success, is failing too many honest, hardworking families.  This accumulated knowledge has helped politicians, councillors, the media, tax groups, solicitors, unions, charities and welfare agencies – who now consult us when researching problems with the system – to better understand where the problems lie in the current system.  Bad practice, data loss, insider fraud, the cruel annulment of previous awards when returned renewal packs go missing, the maternity leave trap, HMRC internal guidance to only discuss the issues claimants themselves raise, the rhetoric-practice gap in exercising Revenue discretion in cases of serious illness, bereavement, mental ill health and acute hardship, breaches of confidentiality and premature court action are just a few examples TCC has found.

Every victim successfully evidencing their innocence of blame, through data access requests which cannot lie (although you must believe that the instances in which key evidence fails to arrive in the data bundle received by the claimant victim on a first request far exceeds the level of coincidence) provides a further piece of the hellish jigsaw, showing a failing, incompetent and ruthless system.  This can no longer be ignored by politicians of any party; it is quite simply wrong.  Within all our main political parties there are supporters of a full write-off, and an Amnesty has been sought at various times by Citizens Advice, Advice Northern Ireland, the Child Poverty Action Group, One Parent Families, the Royal College of Nursing, the GMB and UNISON and the Parliamentary Ombudsman, among many others.

[Here you can insert a short summary of how you or a family member has been affected by a non-fault tax credit overpayment, and the impact this has had, especially on someone’s health and wellbeing or chance of a better life.]

I want to see our new government putting just a portion of the unclaimed tax credit billions to good use, freeing the innocent indebted from the nightmare of tax credit overpayment bills.  This will give honest victims back their lives and dignity, as well as restoring public confidence in all our political leaders, whether in government or opposition, to take the interests and wellbeing of their constituents seriously.  You will know how much this has been in question recently.

I urge you to support a tax credit overpayment Amnesty as an important step towards tackling poverty, encouraging future take-up of tax credits by qualifying families, and securing a safer, fairer tax credit system.  Please let me know by return of post that you will be adding your support to this vital action.

Yours sincerely,

Please share this with all of your friends. The more, the merrier!

And keep campaigning, because we’re going to win!