Tories slam 'chronic' Brown over Inland Revenue

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary David Willetts has slammed what he described as “chronic mismanagement at the Treasury”, following the Treasury Select Committee’s damning indictment of failures at the Inland Revenue yesterday.

Mr Willetts said that Chancellor Gordon Brown was “living on borrowed time” and must take “ultimate responsibility” for blunders at the IR, in particular its processing of family tax credits.

He said: “It is clear the Inland Revenue is in a complete shambles. Relations between the responsible minister and senior Revenue officials appear to have completely broken down. Each blames the other – and then they both blame EDS.

“After six years as Chancellor, Gordon Brown has reduced a once great department to a sad state. He has given it ever more tasks in order to build up his power base and it has collapsed under the strain.

“The Revenue simply cannot cope with the burdens that have been imposed upon it. Around a million families are either still waiting for their tax credits to be paid or have not even bothered to apply in the first place.

“I therefore welcome the report’s conclusion that people who have lost out should be compensated quickly and in full. It is now time for the Government to set out their proposals for compensation.

“The tax credits fiasco has implications for the introduction of the Pension Credit in October. The main lesson the Government seems to have learnt is to keep the new Pension Credit as obscure as possible and hope that not too many people claim it. The Pension Credit is being given such a low profile that millions of eligible pensioners are likely to lose out.”

(GMcG)