Clause 29 - Incorrect statements etc.
Tax Credits Bill
6:15 pm
Mr Paul Boateng (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Brent South, Labour)
Let me give an example. Someone who fills in an incorrect income figure because he cannot be bothered to look at his payslip is not being fraudulent, but negligent; he is not taking reasonable care. Let us suppose that someone puts down £175, when the figure is £195. That could be the result of an innocent misreading of the payslip, which is in script form. However, if a person writes down £95, it would be harder to believe that such action was innocent. It might not be fraudulent action, but it shows a lack of reasonable care. If there were a query and the person still wrote down £95, it would show that he had stepped over the boundary from negligence, and that his action was fraudulent.
We all know from constituency experience that some people lead lives that appear shambolic to others. However, it would be wrong to believe that they have no clear sense of what is coming into the home and what is going out. Sometimes, they have a clearer sense of outgoings than income, but in the main people are fairly clear about such matters, even if some of the detail is fuzzy. It would not be right to underestimate people's capacities in such matters.
My hon. Friend the Member for Regent's Park and Kensington, North (Ms Buck) is right to remind the Committee to make sure that the guidance given, the discretion exercised and, when it is relevant, the prosecution's policy take the whole picture into account. Often the recipients of tax credits do not have the degree of familiarity with forms and figures that can be expected of those who utilise the PAYE system.