Child tax credit system "working for the majority"
The paymaster general, Dawn Primarolo has spoken in defence of the child tax credit system which came under fire yesterday following a damning report by parliamentary ombudsman Ann Abraham.
Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast show this morning, Ms Primarolo said the reported errors only occurred in a "minority" of cases.
The parliamentary ombudsman had highlighted a number of instances where families where left in financial difficulty after they had been overpaid in child tax credits and were later forced to return the money.
However Ms Primarolo retorted: "For the majority of tax credit claimants the system is working ok … six million families, ten million children."
Although the Treasury representative admitted there were IT problems "in the initial period of introduction", she added: "Lessons have to be learnt for a minority if we are to improve."
Despite a number of televised cases where families left in dire financial straights were excused from returning the money overpaid in child tax credit, Ms Primarolo expressed that this was not likely to happen with everyone.
"I will have to consider that," she said. "But where people clearly knew they had been overpaid, accept that they have been overpaid, I don't really see why they shouldn't be paying it back." | 
