Child Tax Credits

The Child Tax Credit system is up the spout again. What a surprise. In four years, we’ve never had a satisfactory year. We’ve had them ignore my income and give us a fortune we knew we weren’t entitled to (as well as other benefits). So we had to save the money, notify them and agree the repayment. We’ve had them fail to tell us what the scales are so that we can check whether they’ve awarded us the right sum (we’re supposed to check, but how can you?). This year, we’ve reported a reduced joint income and so you’d expect a higher award. Nope. They lobbed off a chunk and are recovering an overpayment. It’s insanity, especially when we rely on this to buy some basics for our children.

So who will get the blame? I notice from the Guardian article linked above the Government speak about ‘officials’. Well, of course ‘officials’ take the action and make the mistakes. But on whose instructions? The officials are civil servants. I know as an ex-civil servant that you simply have to implement and operate Government policy. I know from someone who works at HM Revenue and Customs, who administer the scheme, what happened. It was introduced too quickly, and staff were not trained properly. Which means nothing has changed in the twenty-one years since I left the service. Politicians introduce something glitzy, it all goes wrong and the blame goes to the ‘officials’ again.

The Tories are right – this has happened under Gordon Brown’s watch (he introduced the scheme as Chancellor of the Exchequer), but they were guilty of the same tricks when they were in power. I know – I worked for them.

We can survive. We are also the kind of educated professional family where we know how to write letters and appeals to win our case (although it’s tiring and soul-destroying to have to do that every year). But there are poorer people than us who won’t know how to play the system, and who are suffering enormous hardships. It’s time politicians stopped either playing the scapegoat (the Labour Government) or pretending they were on a righteous crusade (the Tories). Sorting out the system to help the poor is a bigger vote-winner for me than political jousting.

And of course we’ll forgive, even if they are using up their seventy times seven credits. But shalom comes with reconciliation and justice, too. So not just as a parent but as a Christian too, I believe this mess must be cleaned up. If Brown really is committed to substance rather than style in contrast to the Blair years, then he will. Let’s wait and see. I wonder how long before I exhale.

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