Conservatives announce plans to tackle UK poverty

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, David Willetts, has proposed plans to introduce an amnesty for low income families who have received overpayments of government tax credits.

Mr Willetts said that many families are facing the prospect of huge cuts in income, as the Inland Revenue prepares to claim back excessive credits that were paid out by mistake.

Mr Willetts proposed introducing an amnesty for these families, as part of the launch of the party's new ideas for tackling poverty.

Speaking at the Centre for Social Justice, Mr Willets said: "The most urgent problem bringing much financial distress to families today is the process whereby the Inland Revenue is reclaiming supposed overpayments of Child Tax Credits. I can announce today that it is Conservative policy to offer an amnesty to families in respect of their Child Tax Credit in 2003/04 unless the overpayment was caused by fraud on the part of the claimant."

Mr Willetts emphasised that this was an essential new direction for the Conservatives: "It is easy to have a neat dualism between head and heart, efficiency and compassion, or Conservative and Labour," he said. "That was how politics appeared in the 1980s: efficient but heartless versus useless but well-intentioned. It is not like that any more. The essential part of Blair's Third Way was to claim that Labour didn't just stand for fairness but also for economic efficiency. Similarly, it is essential for the renewal of Conservatism that we are not just the Party that celebrates enterprise and economic success but also understand that we have obligations to the most vulnerable members of society."

Mr Willetts speech follows on from other recent policy announcements by the Conservatives on childcare and pensions, including plans to increase the state pension, as the party prepares for the next General Election, which is widely anticipated to take place in May, although it could take place any time before June 2006.

(KmcA/SP)