January 29, 2009
Incompetent or Devious
As I write this, I am unsure whether by the end of the day it will be national news.
I am currently working for John Pugh, Liberal Democrat MP for Southport, as a researcher and press-release-writer-person. A week or so ago we did some local press releases about a little-known tax credit for families, which many people who were eligible to claim for weren’t doing so because they simply hadn’t heard about it.
Since then the issue has evolved significantly. Lots of people have been trying to claim the tax credits but the HMRC forms are a complete mess, meaning many forms are being returned incomplete or late – hence lots of families could be losing up to £1000 they are owed by the government because the deadline for back-dated claims is this Sunday.
The key problems are:
- Forms downloaded from the HMRC website ask applicants to enter their name, address and NI number “in the boxes above”. There are no boxes above included on the form
- The helpline number provided in the explanatory notes is no longer operational.
- Applicants are asked to “Please return this form to your Inland Revenue office. Their address is on Page 1″. No address is provided on Page 1, or anywhere else on the form.
- Constituents of Mr Pugh who collected application forms from their local tax office were not supplied with explanatory notes. The form asks applicants to refer to the explanatory notes if they have difficulty.
- Access to forms and explanatory notes is therefore largely dependent upon having internet access. Many families eligible for the Child Tax Credit have severely limited access to the internet, often due to financial reasons.
This morning we sent out a big national press release calling for deadline extension on the basis of government incompetence. We’ve yet to see if anything will happen.
What I’m wondering is whether any editorial or comment pieces will take up the matter. After all, the government seems caught up in a dilemma on this issue. Either it is so incompetent it can’t properly produce and administer a 3-page application form, or else it deliberately threw obstacles in the way of poor families trying to claim money they were entitled to.
Neither option is particularly flattering.
Ste For Sure said,
January 29, 2009 at 4:31 pm
id imagine the answer is a sort of half way. Not all out incompetence, and not conspiritorial deviousness, but a sympton of how things like making sure the poor can get what they are owed is not prioritised, so mistakes, obstacles, etc remain in place. unless decent politicians like pugh do anything, then the victims are pretty much voiceless as well.
this kind of thing is seen at its extreme in the policy of “gatekeeping” seen in lots of councils aroung housing for the poor and other issues: Check out these guys. http://www.lcap.org.uk, (awesome direct action group)