THE SNP’s Gordon Macdonald has written to the UK government calling for reassessments of Child Tax Credits in Scotland to correspond with Scottish school term times, following reports of delayed payments.
The Edinburgh Pentlands MSP has been contacted by families who are struggling to manage, after they did not receive the Child Tax Credits payments they were due. HMRC confirmed they are recalculating all Child Tax Credits in line with the return of schools in England, with payments delayed due to system overloads.
Child Tax Credits were automatically stopped August 31 (in line with the new school term in England) despite families in Scotland contacting HMRC two weeks ago (when schools in Scotland returned) to ensure their information was up to date and that there would be no delays to their payments.
Families are now facing delayed payments of up to £175 (per child, per week) whilst HMRC reassess families in Scotland – despite children having been back at school for over two weeks already.
Macdonald is calling for an urgent change to the process to reduce the impact of delays upon families.
He said: “This is yet another example of the Tories mismanagement and their lack of consideration for Scotland.
“The UK government’s unwillingness to recognise Scottish school term times is leading to an overloaded department and is, ultimately, leaving families short of money and struggling to manage – through no fault of their own.
“There is simply no need for this to be happening. Schools in Scotland return in mid-August and that is when Child Tax Credit payments should be recalculated. It would alleviate the workload that HRMC are now facing and, most importantly, reduce the negative impact on families in Scotland.
“Tory austerity measures are already driving Scottish families into poverty and these families are facing further hardship simply because of the incompetence of the UK government in not taking Scottish school holidays dates into account.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here