The ragged edge of technology
Thursday, June 02, 2005

The Guardian: Two million families hit by tax credit clawback
They were launched in April 2003 amid chaotic scenes at government call centres when millions of families queried payments and phone lines jammed. One computer error last year caused 455,000 people to be overpaid. The windfall was paid directly into claimants' bank accounts and many spent the money before discovering it had to be returned.

I've got some personal experience of this. My family and I have been on working tax credit. Last year we received a letter notifying us that we were due a back-payment of £900. Big money, to us at least. Before we got too excited, we checked and double checked with the tax credit agency that we were entitled to the money. Yes, we were assured, every penny.

Then, wouldn't you know it, just as the money was spent - some debts paid, some none-too-extravagant treats - we were told that we weren't entitled to the money after all. A "computer error" had created a phantom child on our account - the back-payment was for a child we didn't have. Our weekly benefit was then garnished to claw the overpayment back but not before we'd endured endlessly stressful weeks of unreturned phone calls and apathetic, under-trained and, on one memorable occasion, distressingly rude call centre staff. Happy days.

You'll understand then why impending ID cards fill me with dread. Particularly, as it looks like one of their uses is going to be to ascertain benefit entitlement. The tax credit system plus a fledgling ID card system equals a sick double whammy. This isn't just about arguments about civil liberties and state control - laudable and meaningful as they are - real people are going to suffer in real ways.

Don't worry though, it's just a few proles at the bottom of the heap who'll be struggling. At least two million proles with jobs and families. We have no interest in politics and don't vote anyway so why should anybody care about us? Or at least that's the perception most people have of benefits claimants. We should be bloody grateful. Turn the page, move on.

But there are millions of us out here and we're not all drinking wifebeater in front of Tot's TV.


11 Comments:

On June 02, 2005 11:26 AM, Anonymous David Duff said...

Now you see at first hand why so many of us want less and less government interference in our lives; without, I hasten to add, going all the way with the extreme Libertarians. Off hand, I cannot think of a more ridiculous scheme than an army of civil servants collecting money from us, and another army of them giving some of it back.

A flat tax would solve the problem at a stroke, taking low-paid workers out of the tax system altogether, and making the tax burden on those qualified, incremental. Easy to collect, and the only people to suffer would be the army of civil servants, and several highly-paid tax-avoidance accountants.  


On June 02, 2005 11:40 AM, Blogger Roger Thornhill said...

I agree with David.

The current crop of political parties are in a real turkey twizzler on this one!

The "working families tax credit" is purely a dodge to avoid raising the base tax allowance which they feel would reuslt in them raising the base rate of tax, which is politically suicidal from a tabloid point of view.

Of course it keeps armies of people behind desks and gives a nice fat contract to an incapable IT company. Lots of churn in the economy and more "salaried unemployed". In addition, it makes YOU beholden to the government for a handout. It makes YOU 'grateful' that 'nice Mr Blair' has 'given' this to you, instead of you not having your money taken away in the first place. A great mechanism to make millions too scared to vote Tory in case they loose their 'cashbacks'.

Turning to IT, such computer systems can be very very simple but on a large scale, for what is so hard about keeping your record on file and working out some sums? It is like an ant nest, but EDS or whoever try and make ONE ORGANISM be all the ants and the queen in the middle. Nature shows us how to deal with complex situations efficiently. One day we will open our eyes and see.  


On June 02, 2005 11:51 AM, Blogger dearieme said...

We were due children's tax credit (if I've got the name right): their web site said so. I applied and was turned down on the bogus grounds that we'd no children. After 20 hours of effort, I gave up. Well, some little luxury forgone; but it would be bloody hard on a family that might need the money more.  


On June 02, 2005 5:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

you're right - look at the CSA debacle it will be a fucking shambles  


On June 02, 2005 6:12 PM, Blogger Friendly Fire said...

Water Melons are the new WMD.

How many happy tax rebate bunnies voted for Labour?  


On June 03, 2005 6:37 AM, Blogger Benjamin said...

Chicken Yoghurt

Great post.

Can I make a request?

Can you make your comments pop up (available with Blogger.)  


On June 03, 2005 8:19 AM, Blogger Justin said...

Benjamin, make your case as to why and I'll consider it.

If I don't like it I reserve the right to have you flogged.  


On June 03, 2005 8:45 AM, Blogger Justin said...

Go on then. Let's give it a go...

Actually, it's pretty good - doesn't drag visitors away from the site.  


On June 03, 2005 10:08 AM, Blogger Aidan Boustred said...

We had a real struggle claiming child tax credit - they lost our original app, then were completely incompetent in dealing with it. We got our money in the end (child now 18 months) - but it took 2 forms, 10 phone calls, 3 letters and a lot of aggro to get it. I had to request a replacement form about 4 times before I actually got it. (The last person said something about the design of their screen which meant people failed to click the confirmation to send).

Luckily their phone number appeared on our old phone bill (which I happened to have kept)- because they had no record of my earlier calls, and so weren't going to back date fully because they had no record of when I started trying to get credit.

Absolutely pathetic. I thought some of the private companies I have dealt with were useless, but they took the prize by a mile.  


On June 03, 2005 10:46 AM, Blogger Alex said...

I see Hewlett Packard have been whoring their proprietary National Identity System (NIS) to the national press fairly heavily. Well, I thought, if I have to be tagged like a steer, fingerprinted like a criminal, monitored everywhere I go and charged £100 for the privilege, I'd rather HP engineered the system than, say, Crapita or EDShite.

And then I read that HP are implementing it, not in open source like most of their stuff, but in MICROSOFT.NET....  


On June 03, 2005 10:05 PM, Anonymous Katie said...

I opened up my paper on the metro the morning after the dutch nee, to find an article buried about the French plans for a national identity register, and the switch from voluntary (but necessary) photo ID cards to ones that are required and biometric.

Specifically, machine readable passports, the US-style RFID (can be read remotely - think I got the acronym wrong), the fingerprints stored electronically. In fact, everything the US and British systems call for.

I got a bit of a thrill out of the fact that I automatically swore out loud in French rather than English at this.

I keep MOVING AWAY from places with plans like this and the DAMN THINGS keep following me.  


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