TAX CREDIT OVERPAYMENT AND CHILD POVERTY

That this House welcomes the Government's pledge to end child poverty by 2020 and acknowledges the progress it has made so far; recognises the recent improvements made to help claimants navigate the tax credit system and to reduce overpayments; is concerned about the continued hardship faced by those who were overpaid tax credits in the first two years of the system's operation, 2003-04 or 2004-05, and who are still dealing with the stress and worry of these debts; is further concerned that the impact of these debts will be more acute in the current economic climate; notes that a recent Citizens Advice debt report found that 15 per cent. of Citizens Advice England and Wales debt clients with children have a tax credit overpayment debt as part of a total debt of over £13,000; and calls on HM Revenue and Customs to write-off all tax credit overpayment debts from these years for those claimants who had an underlying entitlement to the money, whose overpayments have been poorly explained and have become administratively complicated or who are on low incomes, unless the overpayment was caused by fraud on the part of the claimant.