WORKING mothers are giving up their jobs on the strength of their tax credit award — only to be left with nothing when the Inland Revenue tells them it has made a mistake and takes back the money.
The latest revelations will add weight to Times Money’s campaign to fight the Revenue’s clawbacks, a campaign that has attracted the support of scores of readers.
One woman who has been hit especially hard by the tax credit fiasco is Vicky Minto, of Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Mrs Minto and her husband, Robert, a social worker, applied for the child tax credit in May, eight months after the birth of their second child.
They gave full details of their earnings and were told in June that they would be receiving £4,000 a year in child tax credit and a further £3,700 in working tax credit, making a total of £7,700.
Mrs Minto says: “Although we now know that my husband’s income, which is more than £15,000, would disqualify him from the working tax credit, we had no reason at the time to dispute the Revenue’s calculations.
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“I decided that, with the tax credits we were receiving of about £600 a month, I could give up my job as an assistant manager at McDonald’s and stay at home to look after my two boys, aged 6 and 1. I handed in my resignation in July after 15 years’ service.”
But in August, the Revenue informed the Mintos that it had got its sums wrong and that they had been overpaid by £1,900.
The Revenue is recovering this by stopping all their tax credits until next April. The taxman is also taking about £400 from Mr Minto’s wage packet.
Mrs Minto says: “The effect on our household budget has been devastating. We have lost £600 of income at a stroke. We will have trouble paying our mortgage and meeting our household bills.”
Angela Maxwell, a state benefits consultant, says: “If the Mintos have given correct information to the Inland Revenue and its officials have admitted that the mistake is theirs, I think that the Mintos should definitely appeal against the decision to claw back the money.”
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An Inland Revenue spokeswoman says: “Even if this is not successful and the money has to be repaid, the family can ask for a repayment schedule which does not cause hardship.”
MARK ATHERTON