24 November 2005

Michael Howard helps constituent avoid having to make repayments after tax blunder. 

Folkestone and Hythe MP Michael Howard has intervened to prevent a constituent from being forced to repay tax credit overpayments. Miss Victoria Penman, of Romney Marsh, Kent, contacted Mr Howard in September 2005 informing him that HM Revenue and Customs had decided that she had been overpayed Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit for the years 2003-06. 

Miss Penman, who with her partner is supporting a young family, expressed her confusion at the decision, which called for a repayment of over £1500, and hoped that Mr Howard could help. Mr Howard therefore wrote to David Varney, the Chairman of HM Revenue and Customs, pointing out that the error was HM Revenue and Customs’. 

In early November, Mr Varney replied, admitting that the overpayment was due to a computer fault occurring while Miss Penman’s declaration was being processed. He added that, having ‘carefully considered all the circumstances surrounding these overpayments, I am pleased to say that we have decided Miss Penman does not have to repay anything’. 

Miss Penning wrote back to thank Mr Howard, saying that ‘a whole weight has been lifted’. Mr Howard added: I was pleased to able to help Miss Penning and her partner in their difficulties with tax credit overpayments. It is unfair, in cases like these, that individuals and families are threatened with hardship through repayment, when the error was not theirs. I am glad that she is now relieved of this worry’.