H/T to Patrick
The National Audit Office today published a report on HM Revenue & Customs 2007-08 accounts. The bit that will probably get all the media attention is the ongoing débâcle that is the Tax Credit system, introduced and much beloved by our glorious leader. Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office, said:
“Levels of tax credits error and fraud are significant when compared with the expenditure on the scheme. I have therefore qualified my opinion on the regularity of these payments. HMRC now has a target and has developed a strategy for reducing error and fraud. It will need to monitor how the measures it adopts are contributing to the achievement of the target and to respond effectively.”
HMRC now have a target and strategy to address this financial clusterfuck? Now? Well, that’s reassuring. Some of the key information from the report on Tax Credits:
Tim Burr of the National Audit Office this morning
2.45 Since the tax credits scheme was introduced in April 2003 it has suffered from high levels of error and fraud. The Department’s latest estimate is that in 2006-07 error and fraud resulted in between £1.31 billion and £1.54 billion (7.2 to 8.4 per cent of the final value of awards) being paid to claimants to which they were not entitled…
2.46 The Department has set a target to reduce thecurrent level of claimant error and fraud to not more than 5 per cent by 2011…
2.48 In the first four years since the scheme was introduced, the Department calculates that year end adjustments, and other small changes to entitlement after the finalisation of awards, have led to a debt of £7.3 billion. It has also identified £700 million from in year adjustments to 2007-08 awards and will identify further overpayments for this year once awards are finalised. By the end of March 2008 the Department had collected £2.7 billion of this debt and written off£1.0 billion. £4.3 billion remains to be collected of which£1.8 billion is in doubt.
£2.8 BILLION. Simply handed out to any skullfucker with the nonce to ask. Overpayments, fraud, simply throwing bundles of our money out of the bastard window and watching it flutter all the way to Nigeria.
BASTARDS!!