29 jul 2005 año - Tax Credits campaign

Descripción:

Citizens Advice Newcastle, along with other similar organisations, have actively addressed issues related to tax credits at both regional and national levels. The government introduced new tax credits with the aim of providing higher payments to families, regardless of their employment status, as part of their strategy to eliminate child poverty. However, Citizens Advice Newcastle noticed significant administrative challenges, including long delays in the distribution of tax credit payments and award notices. By 2005, these issues were causing severe financial distress for many families, whose incomes were often reduced to below income support levels due to the recovery of overpaid tax credits.

Citizens Advice Newcastle's social policy officers have regularly met with revenue officials to express these concerns. They have specifically highlighted problems such as the failure of award notices to clearly explain entitlements, the hardships caused by automatic and unlimited payment reductions due to previous overpayments, and the high rate of errors made. Citizens Advice Newcastle has collaborated with other organisations to redesign award notices and has used media platforms to raise awareness of the financial difficulties caused by poor tax credit administration.

In addition to contributing client evidence to a national social policy report, Citizens Advice Newcastle played a key role in creating a regional report titled "Tax Credits: A Guaranteed Minimum Income." This report was launched in Durham with local MPs, the media and social policy workers, leading to MPs pledging to introduce measures to halt the recovery of disputed overpayments due to official errors until a decision is made.

While these developments are positive, Citizens Advice Newcastle believes there is still much work to be done. Ongoing policy issues include the complex process for writing off overpayments, as families are currently responsible for contesting recovery decisions, resulting in many repaying overpayments that may have stemmed from mistakes. Citizens Advice Newcastle remains committed to lobbying for these changes, using client evidence to highlight the need for urgent reforms.

As a result of this work, Citizens Advice Newcastle won the National Social Policy Volunteer of the Year award. Citizens Advice Newcastle congratulates Brendan who led this work and thanks him for his hard work in achieving these goals.

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