Equitable liability and tax credits

A point that occurs to me is that if equitable liability is scrapped the department will end up in the situation for direct taxes that it is in with tax credits.

I know nothing of tax credits but offered last year to assist a relative who had been sent a demand and was threatened with court proceedings bailiffs etc. in relation to an alleged tax credit overpayment of £2 417 from 2004/05.

My relative is unable to work through permanent disability and chronic illness looks after a child with cystic fibrosis and is living off state benefits and handouts from her family.

It transpired that the tax credit ‘overpayment’ related to a period when she had lived with the child’s father and a claim had been made by both parents based on their joint income (the tax credit was paid into her bank account).

At the...