Improvement to administration vital to meeting targets on child poverty

Commenting on today's publication of official data on tax credits overpayments and underpayments, Child Poverty Action Group's Chief Executive, Kate Green, said: "It is vital that families are paid the right amount at the right time. The uncertainty, underpayments and overpayment recoveries have left many families struggling with a reduced income.

"Tax credits are an essential part of the Government's strategy to end child poverty and have undoubtedly helped keep many families out of poverty. The Government must get the system working properly and restore public confidence in it to meet the target of halving child poverty by 2010.

"Changes introduced by the Treasury last year should reduce the number of overpayments but are too recent to impact on today's figures. But they still need to do more, such as putting in place an automatic pause before overpayments are recovered to allow people time to dispute them if they are the fault of poor administration, not of the claimant."