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New "Letter of the Week" 31 March 2008 Take a look at our fantastic new letter of the week , sent in by Zach. The more people who send it, the bigger our chance of successfully being listened to ..... and this weeks offering is for Gordon Brown himself! Portsmouth Meeting Sparks Demand for Justice in the Tax Credit System. 22 March 2008 Following the Tax Credit Casualties’ first ever public regional meeting in Rotherham earlier this month, it was the South’s turn to discuss ‘Cleaning Up the Tax Credit system’ with its own regional meeting, hailed by National Coordinator and Portsmouth local Alison Myers-Ward as another great success. On a wet, freezing-cold day, 50 plus people turned out and filled the room to capacity. An indictment of the scale of the problem is that most commented that they felt the need to turn up early because the meeting was sure to be packed. The picture below shows just some of the attendees, with Alison Myers-Ward (third from left), Paula Dean (fourth from left) and Darren Sanders (fifth from left). Let's all hope that the charming young lady, holding the banner, doesn't have her own Tax Credit overpayment bill in a few years time!
Two local cases added poignancy to the meeting, with one local family receiving a demand for a staggering £26,000 without warning or explanation. Participants were stunned as Kim, from Southampton, gave an emotive account of how false demands for £20,000, which she did not cause and could not possibly have known about, had pushed her beyond endurance, needlessly decimating her life before the amount was finally written off, last week, with barely an apology. Local political representatives Penny Mordaunt (Conservative) and Darren Sanders (Liberal Democrats) willingly gave up their time to support the Tax Credit Casualties and delivered lively and impassioned inputs. Despite being rival candidates for the Portsmouth North seat, they agreed a cross-party solution was essential, and were highly critical of how overpaid claimants were treated by a bullying and buck-passing Treasury. Penny Mordaunt revealed that the Conservatives intended writing off non-fraudulent overpayments. Penny described how she is already working with the TCC on a compilation of victims’ stories, and pledged support from party colleagues who are Members of Parliament. Darren Sanders, speaking on behalf of Portsmouth North MP Mike Hancock, likened HMRC’s punitive, bullying and aggressive approach, coupled with it's appalling blunders, to the reviled CSA - and offered Mike Hancock’s support in booking a room at Westminster so that MPs and the national media could hear the TCC’s calls for justice. Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP declined to attend, instead issuing a two-page statement in support of the current system and rejecting an Amnesty for non-fraudulent overpayments. Finally, questions were taken from the ‘floor’- the formal part of the meeting gave way to one-to-one discussions and a chance to chat with attendees. Despite there being no representatives from either HMRC or Citizens Advice (who were both invited), the meeting generated much discussion and support for both tax credit victims and TCC. Alison Myers-Ward said, ‘We have had so many offers of support and collective action that justice can surely no longer be denied us. Taking our campaign to the heart of Westminster, opening up honest debate, and allowing the media to see the full extent of the human misery caused can only advance our cause. For too long power has been misapplied, and victims blamed. Collectively we will be heard!’ Statement from Jean Shaoul (S.E.P.) 21 March 2008 Following the TCC Regional Meeting in Rotherham on 8 March 2008, Jean Shaoul has given us very interesting statement that shows the bigger picture behind Tax Credits. Everyone should read this, especially our Members of Parliament. Read Jean Shaoul's statement here. TCC Website Reaches 50,000 Unique Hits 17 March 2008 Today, TCC are marking the 50,000th unique hit on this website. See the Press Release here. Maybe you could forward the press release to your local newspapers or community publications. This would help a lot of people, just by letting them know that TCC exists! TCC Can Now Accept Donations 10 March 2008 We are now able to accept donations. No matter how small, these will be gratefully received toward our campaigning costs, and our goal of funding a Judicial Review of Tax Credits. Please take a look at our our donations page. Imagine if everyone could manage to donate just a pound a week ....... £1 x Lots of People = Success ! Thank you. We are all Tax Credit Casualties ourselves, and know just how precious every pound is! The webmaster's cheque IS in the post :) Rotherham Meeting A Big Success 8 March 2008 TCC's first ever public regional meeting was held in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, today - and has been branded a big success by Paula Dean, the founder of TCC.
Attendees were first given a short, factual presentation about the tax credit mess by Sarah McCall, (National Coordinator), with Paula briefly speaking about how TCC came into being, before telling us about one local victim's case. Local political representatives Lynda Donaldson (Conservative) and Jean Shaoul (S.E.P.) gave up their valuable time in support of tax credit casualties - and both were critical of the tax credit system. Lynda Donaldson talked about how the tax credit system failed claimants, and likened the tax credit problem to the Poll Tax demonstrations. Jean Shaoul discussed Tony Blair’s promise and implementation of a whole benefit strategy that included tax credits, but actually mislead the public about supporting the working class and trapped people in a bureaucratic system that punished and monitored them. Read Jean Shaoul's statement here. Common elements of both inputs were; how the "so called" flexible nature of the system left it wide open to failure, how it actually punished claimants trapped within it and how the (flawed) means-tested element of tax credits failed to correctly apportion eligibility. Rotherham MP Dennis MacShane made an unplanned appearance, but, despite his current unfortunate and tragic personal circumstances, we were unable to alter our agenda to accommodate his last minute request to speak at the beginning of the meeting. After completing the agenda, we discussed and answered issues raised from the ‘floor’, and disbanded the formal section of the meeting to meet and chat, one to one, with attendees. All in all, the meeting generated a lot of discussion and support for both tax credit victims and TCC. Paula Dean stated "momentum is beginning to build", and that today's meeting was the result of "excellent teamwork". Thank you to everyone who attended! The next public regional meeting is in Portsmouth, on the 22 March. More regional meetings will follow. TCC - "Cleaning Up the Tax Credit Mess" - "Justice is an Amnesty" |
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Tax Credit Casualties (TCC) is a voluntary, unfunded, not for profit
organisation run by members for members. We cannot take any responsibility for
decisions made by HMRC, The Parliamentary Ombudsman, The Adjudicator, or any
other organisation, regarding claimants cases. We offer free advice on how to
dispute unfair overpayments based on our own experiences, the experiences of
other claimants and HMRC guidelines.
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Even technical problems, (an all too familiar hazard to tax credit claimants!), with the visual display did not prevent TCC from delivering a comprehensive explanation of how overpayments had become so prolific, debunking the myth of dishonest, incompetent claimants bringing debt upon themselves. TCC revealed the source of these problems – an over-complex, ill-conceived system, horrendously mismanaged; with an inability of the Government to accept responsibility for its own 'Frankenstein' creation.