TAX CREDITS

That this House notes with concern that in 2004-05 almost two million people were overpaid tax credits at a cost of £1.8 billion and that the Comptroller and Auditor General in his report of HM Revenue and Customs' accounts predicted that overpayments of a similar magnitude will have occurred in 2005-06; recognises that when a tax credit is overpaid the Tax Credit Office makes an assumption that the claimant is at fault and thus automatically claims back the overpayment, often leading to great anxiety and financial hardship for the claimant; and therefore calls upon the Government to reverse the burden of proof when claiming back all overpaid tax credits, and to bring forward proposals to return to a system of fixed awards to deliver stability for tax credit claimants on low incomes.