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Tuesday 15th July 2008
A combination of fraud and tax credit errors cost HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) a total of £1.5 billion over the last financial year, the National Audit Office (NAO) has said.
According to the report, this means that the total number of tax credits which have been written off by HMRC since 2003 now stands at £7 billion.
This means that many of the vulnerable groups designed to benefit from the tax breaks - such as people on low incomes, those with young children and pensioners - are not taking advantage of them.
Commenting, Conservative MP Edward Leigh said: "The amount being lost to fraud and error is still running to unacceptable levels, with between £1.31bn and £1.54bn paid out to claimants in 2006-07 over and above their entitlement.
"Since 2003, the scale of overpayment on tax credits has also been immense...vulnerable families who have been overpaid, already struggling within the current economic climate, face long-term repayments to the government through no fault of their own."
The NAO also found that the amount of back taxes which HMRC still has to claim back from UK households now stands at £4.3 billion, a £400 million increase over the past 12 months.
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