|
This site is about
UK Tax Credits
| |
December 2008 News Archive
2008 – A Year of Successful Campaigning. 31 December 2008 We really must begin this end of year summary by giving huge thanks to everyone who works behind the scenes at TCC, whether doing research, helping to fundraise, or giving advice and support on our forum. Very many thanks for all of your help and support, to: Alan, Robert, Auntieh, Sammy, Red Rocket, Splashin', Rosie, Missfroy, Willow, Clare, Karen and Nigel - and also to everyone who has actively joined in with our campaign over the past 12 months. The success of our 'Justice is an Amnesty' campaign depends on just how many people actually campaign. TCC have been fighting Tax Credit overpayments for very nearly four years now. Let's make 2009 the year we win - by creating a tidal-wave of opinion against the injustice of overpayments. A tidal-wave of letters, complaints and media coverage. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone joined in? Wow !! Anyway, there's lots missed out, but below is a brief summary of our achievements in 2008. Well done to the whole TCC team!
January
- TCC write to Jane Kennedy asking for an explanation of why, and expressing disappointment that, despite her promise the previous summer of extensive “consultations”, there has been no meeting of senior government ministers with TCC representatives.
- Work begins on 'Voices of the Victims', a collection of first-hand accounts of claimants’ experiences of the tax credit system.
- Portsmouth News runs a series of pieces on local TCC members and overpayment victims, including a family stung with a £26,000 debt.
February - TCC explore the problem of claimants who are victims of fraud, gathering information towards future media exposure of this recurrent problem, with the aim of debunking the myth that claimants (rather than organised gangs and knowledgeable HMRC insiders) are responsible.
- Rotherham Record features TCC National Co-ordinators Paula and Sarah, who challenge Revenue claims of increased processing accuracy and a drastic reduction in overpayments.
- Rotherham Advertiser features TCC and highlights the huge level of overpayments still within the system, despite government attempt to massage the system.
- TCC extract details from HMRC of its intentions regarding the “Illegal Recovery” of tax credits first announced last year. HMRC states its intention to review cases where they may have incorrectly reduced claimant entitlement.
March - First the Rotherham, and then the Portsmouth Regional Meeting – “Cleaning up the Tax Credit Mess” – are a resounding success, attracting interest from local Parliamentary Candidates and the Rotherham newspapers/Portsmouth News, and raising local awareness and invaluable funds.
- The re-vamped TCC website records 50,000 unique hits.
- Donations to the campaign fund are now possible.
April - TCC make contact with Liberal Democrat John Hemming, who has a special interest in the annulment of tax credit awards due to HMRC losing/not receiving a renewal notice and recovering entire awards. A positive working relationship between TCC and John Hemming begins, and the potential for future legal action on this huge issue looks good.
- TCC uncover a clause in tax law which evidence strongly suggests HMRC is using, which allows HMRC to withhold data from claimants if it damages HMRC’s cause and allows an HMRC-created overpayment to be revealed as such and written off. TCC reiterates the importance of claimants using data requests to win their cases and insisting on the release of any missing evidence until it is surrendered by HMRC.
- TCC help claimants who voluntarily want to leave the system to achieve this, highlighting ‘once in, always in’.
May - Daniel Kawczynski speaks up in Parliament about the extent of the tax credit mess and its catastrophic impact on his constituents, and TCC writes to Jane Kennedy inviting her response.
- TCC highlight how nearly 20% of all claims are still being overpaid and are still subject to harsh recovery, and states that this is not good enough. TCC post details of the soaring number of calls made by MPs to the tax credit hotlines, attributing this to the success of our campaign to inform claimants of their right to dispute recovery and to support them with this.
- TCC are nominated for the New Statesman New Media Awards for the second year running, securing the highest level of nominations and supportive comments of all the entries (although we weren't even shortlisted!).
June - TCC launch its Voices of the Victims booklet of first-hand accounts of claimants denied justice, meeting with cross-party MPs in Westminster. The booklet is widely acclaimed and key representatives from Children’s Charities also attend the launch.
- A TCC member attends UNISON’s National Delegate Conference to move Motion 100 – Unfair Recovery of Tax Credit Overpayments. Although a full agenda means it cannot be moved or discussed along with many other Motions, the NEC policy is to support an amended version with key recommendations intact, and an update is expected in January 2009.
- New letter templates developed by TCC to enable members to Refuse a Renewal and Review, and to Cancel a Tax Credit Claim.
- The Reading Chronicle describes a TCC member’s experiences on being told by HMRC that their children did not exist.
- The Isle of Wight Press describes the catalogue of errors experienced by a TCC member, who received a record number of multiple award notices all saying different things.
- Jess joins the TCC core team as a 3rd Sector Liaison Officer, helping TCC work most effectively with Childrens’ Charities, Welfare Rights Groups, and organisations for people with disabilities to pool our respective strengths and insights. She quickly observes, “Our independence is our strength!”
- Through the TCC Amnesty petition, TCC receive the sad news from a family member that tax credit injustices have claimed a suicide victim.
- Following our cross-party presentation, Liberal Democrats John Hemming MP and Darren Sanders deliver the TCC petition and Voices of the Victims to 10 Downing Street, permission having been denied to TCC members to deliver these ourselves.
- A Portsmouth TCC member receives a Portsmouth News "We Can Do It!" Tshirt for her campaign work - as a volunteer - for local overpayment victims (making the shortlist for the end of year awards in December).
July - TCC’s legal case is underway, although details cannot be shared at present on the advice of our acclaimed pro-bono solicitors.
- TCC are widely publicised in the Sunday Times (how members are using data requests to finally prove HMRC made horrific errors and win their cases), the Financial Times (how tax credits are “on the rocks”), and the Mail (growing support for a Tax Credit Amnesty). A TCC member is featured by the BBC, warning of the complexities of tax credits.
- TCC write to Jane Kennedy complaining about the difficulties claimants still face in voluntarily exiting the failing TC system.
- Reading Chronicle do a follow-up story on the family whose children, according to HMRC, did not exist. Their case has now been resolved by HMRC.
- TCC report on our website how the National Audit Office would not, for the 6th year running, sign off the HMRC accounts due to their appalling administrative failures.
- Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham, announces himself as a TCC supporter and calls for all non-fraudulent overpayments to be written off by his government.
August - TCC highlight how HMRC, despite re-writing their Code of Practice 26, are still failing to meet their basic responsibilities and warn that HMRC is stepping up recovery action, calling its members to step up the Justice is an Amnesty campaign.
September - TCC write to Jane Kennedy noting inflexibility of the TC system, high error rates, the flaws of treating overpayments like unpaid taxes, continuing lack of government consultation with TCC, the failure of the £25,000 disregard to be the proclaimed safety net, and making the case for an Amnesty.
- TCC supply UNISON Welfare workers with additional training materials to help them support members disputing recovery of non-fault overpayments.
- TCC give a formal response to the HMRC discussion paper Tax Credits – Improving Delivery and Choice.
- TCC join Facebook.
October - Rachel joins the TCC core team, and suggests a member blog. The Diary of the Damned TCC blog opens and is well-received.
- Another volunteer with an impressive CV for charitable work, who had joined to help fundraise, unfortunately has to step down for health reasons.
- Call for Voting Members to formally register for TCC’s first AGM.
November - TCC’s first AGM is heralded a great success.
- A Big Screen Film is produced for TCC free of charge, and distribution and showing begins.
- TCC write to the leaders of the 3 main UK political parties asking what actions they propose taking to make the tax credit system safer and fairer, citing evidence of MPs within each party who support a Tax Credit Amnesty.
- TCC representatives attend a landmark legal meeting, and Low Incomes Tax Reform Group and Child Poverty Action Group are invited to join and contribute.
- TCC’s Leader and Founder Paula Dean, a Rotherham woman, scoops a Community Achievement Award for her groundbreaking voluntary work with tax credit overpayment victims in Rotherham and Nationally.
December - The Liberal Democrats, many of whose members have taken a keen interest in the TCC campaign, launches its 5 point plan for reforming the tax credit system, including promising an independent review of disputed cases. TCC welcome the 5 Point Plan, and in a formal response describe how this could be developed into an Amnesty.
- TCC contact UNISON seeking a progress report on Motion 100 and the NEC’s response.
- With 5 Anglican church leaders criticising the government’s lack of action on debt and poverty, TCC write to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the various Bishops making this challenge and ask them to also specifically highlight the plight of claimants receiving unexpected tax credit bills this Christmas.
- Paula appears on GMTV to raise awareness of the TCC’s work.
 Have a very, very Happy New Year,
from all of us at Tax Credit Casualties. May 2009 bring you health, happiness, and, just maybe, a few bob more, too!
[Top]
 Merry Christmas, One & All 25 December 2008 
Wherever you are and whatever your circumstances, have a very, very merry Christmas!If you don't celebrate Christmas, then 'Happy Holidays'! Love, peace and upliftment to everyone ..... everywhere.
[Top]
Liberal Democrat Report & 5-Point Plan 17 December 2008 Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg stood up on behalf of Tax Credit victims everywhere last Wednesday, telling the Prime Minister "The tax credits system that he [Gordon Brown] created is confused, bureaucratic and cruel. When will he move to a system of fixed payments, so that people do not have to live in fear of the money that they get today being taken away by him tomorrow?" The Liberal Democrats had just released a report showing that the number of court cases had risen dramatically during the first six months of this financial year: "The number of families that have been pursued through the courts for not repaying their tax credit overpayments in the past six months is five times higher than the whole of last year. Figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats show that HMRC has already taken 5697 families to court to recover tax credit overpayments since April, compared to just 1024 in the previous 12 months."
Even if you can already guess Gordon Brown's response, it's worth reading the transcript from Prime Ministers Questions so you know just how much our supposedly caring PM actually does care about the one-million two-hundred thousand who were overpaid in 2006/07, or the one-million nine-hundred and two thousand in 2005/06, or the one-million nine-hundred and fifty-eight thousand from 2004/05 ...... or even the one-million eight-hundred and seventy-nine thousand from 2003/04. That's a grand total of seven-million and thirty-thousand claims, totalling six-billion one hundred and fifty-two million pounds sterling OVERPAID. £6,152,000,000 ..... 7,030,000 claimants ...... and the Prime Minister doesn't want to listen!! Not even to the leader of another Party! He just keeps quoting the same wrong figures, trying to convince everyone that everything is absolutely just hunky-dory in Tax Credit Land! The Lib Dems also published a 5-point plan for stabilising the Tax Credit system - and we'd like to hear your opinions about it! Read the full report & Lib Dem 5-Point plan including TCC's initial comments. Read the full report & Lib Dem 5-Point plan without TCC comments.
[Top]
Welcome ! 10 December 2008 If you're new to our website, welcome to the club that nobody really wants to join! Please feel free to have a good browse around our site. Everything you learn will help you in disputing your 'overpayment' against the HMRC bullies! If you want to fight your 'overpayment', please go to our 'How to Dispute' pages! Join our Forum, sign up for our
Newsletter, read our Blog and join our
campaign. Without YOU, and your voice, we are nothing! Since the introduction of new Tax Credits, people have been telling the Government that something is very wrong with the Tax Credit system. That's why Paula Dean founded Tax Credit Casualties (TCC), and it is the reason why TCC has grown into the organisation that it is today. You only have to look at the stories in the 'New Member' section of our forum, or read 'Voices of the Victims' to understand how the Tax Credit system is failing a large proportion of the people that it was designed to help. If you need hard figures, and damning reports, please take a look at our 'Research Library'. The Government continually state that Tax Credits do a lot of good, and yes, in principle, that is true. However, when 1.2 million people (taking the very best official figures) every year are driven into debt through claiming a benefit that they are perfectly entitled to, there is something very, very wrong. At present, there are some 7 million claimants that are having to deal with an overpayment - 7 million families that not only don't get the financial support that they are entitled to, but actually have to repay a 'loan' that they never agreed to, don't want, and wouldn't have taken if the hazards had been properly explained to them. They are worse off than they would be if they had never claimed Tax Credits. Imagine that a fantastic new medical treatment was discovered, and implemented, by the NHS. The only drawback was that it 'killed off' one in five patients ...... would that be acceptable? Of course it wouldn't be - it would never be licensed. But when it comes to Tax Credits, those casualty figures are quite acceptable to the Government. The casualty rate used to be one in three - around two million claimants a year! And most of those claimants are still repaying what they shouldn't have owed in the first place ...... It is impossible to accurately talk about Tax Credit overpayments without becoming political to some degree. Why? Well, Tax Credits are Gordon Brown's baby ..... he implemented them when he was Chancellor. Yet he refuses to even acknowledge that something very fundamental is wrong - his new clothes must be seen to fit! He absolutely refuses to take any responsibility for the nightmare that he created, and that shirking of responsibility is duplicated down, throughout Government organisations. The Tax Credit Office, part of HMRC, have copied Gordon's Governments' example to a tee. They lie to recover overpayments. They cheat to recover overpayments. They use the full weight of Tax law to recover overpayments. They are often so underhand in their dealings that it makes you ashamed to be British - ashamed that this is what the national exchequer has become. Here at TCC, we are seeing a dramatic rise in cases that are brought before a court - and not as a last resort, but as the first the victim knows of it. We see County Court Judgements that are issued without any knowledge of the victim - they only find out when they look into their credit rating. We see 'overpayments' repaid from Income Tax, without the payees knowledge. Lots of recent demands for repayment of 'overpayments' going back to 2003/04. Suicide. You name it, we know of it! The story of the decade is waiting for a journalist to tell it! Does anyone have the courage?
[Top]
|
