Lib Dem Leader Menzies Campbell highlights waste of almost £9bn in Brown’s tax credit scheme

Speaking at PMQs this Wednesday, Lib Dem Leader Menzies Campbell called on the Prime Minister to acknowledge the amount of money “wasted by fraud, error and overpayment” in the current tax credit scheme, which had been set up when Gordon Brown was still working for the Treasury.

The Prime Minister, however, tried to justify the tax credit system by arguing that it was the "most successful" policy for reducing child poverty and that the Labour party had done a lot in government to end child poverty.

Menzies Campbell stressed that the "money wasted" was heading towards £9bn and there were two million families whose lives had been "made miserable" by these frauds and errors.

Asked by Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik whether he would meet representatives of the Motor Neurone Disease Association in order to show support for their campaign to raise £15 million to find a cure for the disease, Prime Minister Gordon Brown assured he would do his best to support the Association’s campaign and work.

PMQs transcript

MC: Once again, I join the Prime Minister in his expressions of condolence and sympathy.
What is the Prime Minister’s assessment of the sums wasted by fraud, error and overpayment in the tax credit system he set up three years ago?

PM: It is very interesting that the leader of the Conservative party did not ask anything about the married couple allowance or tax credits and that it has been left to the leader of the Liberal party to pick up the baton. Tax credits are the most successful policy in removing child poverty in this country: 6 million families benefit from tax credits. Yes, there was computer error to start with, but it is being substantially reduced and the right hon. and learned Gentleman should admit that 600,000 children are not in poverty today because they are receiving tax credits.

MC: But as the Prime Minister said on the radio this morning, there is still a long way to go. The truth is that the money wasted is heading towards £9 billion - £9 billion that could have been better spent. Behind that figure there are 2 million families whose lives have been made miserable by error and overpayment. Is not that the responsibility of the Prime Minister?

PM: I can tell the Leader of the Opposition he knows what it means, saying a long way to go. Child benefit was £11 when we came into power; it will be £20 in 2010. The child tax credit was £27 and it is rising for the poorest families to more than £70, compared with £28 when the Conservatives were in power. We have done more through these measures to take children out of poverty than any previous government in the past 30 or 40 years. The right hon. and learned Gentleman should be supporting the tax credit system, not condemning it.

LO: The Prime Minister’s predecessor was hugely supportive of the Motor Neurone Disease Association’s campaign to raise £15 million to find a cure for this dreadful and terminal disease. As a direct result, we have raised almost £4 million so far this year from private donors. Will the new Prime Minister meet representatives of the MND Association to maintain the momentum and help us to achieve a goal that I believe we all share: a world free of MND?

PM: I understand the hon. Gentleman’s interest in this. He has been a long-standing campaigner for support for both the Medical Research Council and others to carry out greater research on motor neurone disease. As someone who has also seen people die of motor neurone disease, I support the research that is being done. I will do my best to support everything that he is doing. I will be happy to meet him and all those associated with this good work in Downing Street at the soonest possible opportunity.