1,500 Weston families miss out on £1 million in tax credits

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 22nd May 2007

Thousands of Weston-super-Mare families have lost out thanks to Labour government bungling says Mike Bell

Local Liberal Democrat Prospective MP Mike Bell has hit out at the government's disgraceful tax credit record after the government published evidence showing they overpaid £2.6 million in tax credits to residents of Weston-super-Mare and wrongly paid out over £9 billion across the country.

At the same time they failed to pay over 1,500 Weston-super-Mare families the tax credit awards they were entitled to. This amounted to a massive underpayment of £1 million.

Local Lib Dem Prospective MP, Mike Bell, said: "The government's record on tax credits here in Weston-super-Mare and North Somerset is a disgrace. Gordon Brown has presided over a tax credits fiasco that is of his own making.

"Not only have taxpayers in Weston-super-Mare lost out, but the government is now trying to claw back money from people on very low incomes - even when it was government mistakes which led to the errors.

"The government has overpaid residents of Weston-super-Mare £2.6 million, and underpaid others to the tune of £1 million.

"The government's shambolic tax credit system leads to uncertainty for many families in Weston-super-Mare as they have no way of knowing what they will receive. I am campaigning for a simple system of fixed term awards of six months so that families know what they are getting and get what they are entitled to."