Revenue admits another IT cock-up

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the government top provider of IT-related disasters, has blamed programming errors for its failure to make payments to about 100,000 low-income families. The £250 grants should have gone into child trust fund accounts, to top up the £250 payment made to all children. Kitty Ussher, economic …

[David Simpson]

Oh dear

Having said that anyone daft enough to deal with an "accountant" who want to bank their client's tax refunds in their own bank account deserves all they get. (this refers to the link to the beeb about yesterday's problem)

They should try using a respectable firm that will put the client's bank details on the form and trust them to pay the bill rather than one that banks the refund deducts their massive fee and then passes on the 3p left over.

There is absolutely no delay if the taxpayer's account is used rather than the accountant's and I hope that the revenue never fixes the problem.

Mine the one with "honest accountant" in big red letters on the back.

[Tom]

I Think, I Know, What I Think I Know, But I Know What I Think I know.

"I think it is tens of thousands for the IT programming error that we know about. There is an additional discrepancy, which is also tens of thousands, that we have not quite got to the bottom of."

That has to be the dumbest statement I have heard in a while, essentially "I think its what we know"....

and just because she popped out a kid we are meant to be kind hearted with these kind of cock ups!!!! Get rid of em all.

[4a$$Monkey]

"how computers talk to each other"

Do these ministers get their IT knowledge from "Jack and Jill do IT"? Why do they not get someone to brief them properly so they they look like a complete idiot when reporting these cock-up?

Joke alert because that's what they are.

[Andy Taylor]

I have a theory

Someone high up in HMRC doesn't want ID cards, these cock-ups simply aid the cause against them.

[Jamie]

Money in IT

Back across the pond the days when IT and Programmers could write thier own cheques died around 2000-2001. Over here the gov't just keeps giving out these blank cheques.

Then people keep stating that the economy is not in that bad a situation.

[Anonymous Coward]

DII(F)

Wait until the full report on the MoD DII(F) system comes out. The others will pale into insignificance beside the size of this cock-up (currently running 3 years late and out of money). EDS (A Hewlett-Packard Company) really know how to screw the taxpayer.

[Anonymous Coward]

Child Tax credits

The system is a Joke. It's based on your earning, but for the previous year.

As our first child is due in a few weeks we got the form and it's a joke. They base it on last years wages, but the Tax office people can't seem to grasp the concept, that as the wife will be on maternaty leave, she will not be earning the same wages as last year. Then when she returns to work, she will be earning more than she will for this year, but we will be entitled to more money????

So in otherwords, if you work, going by HM Govs dumb ass methods, when we earn less, we get less, but when we start earning more again, we get more, but hold on, then they will be overpaying us.

How hard would it be just to link it to PAYE for cripes sake!

[Mike Crawshaw]

@ Stu Reeves, Re: Last Year's Data

Been there.

I was out of the country for 6 months of one year, and had to use my UK earnings only on the form, which was minimal, because I continued to live off a redundancy payment for a while after getting back. They paid me the maximum Child Tax Credits etc, even though I was, by this point, earning in excess of £30K - and the following year wanted a lot back... Telling them that they were calculating incorrectly got me absolutely nothing but a large telephone bill and a nervous twitch whenever I hear "Your call is important. Please hold."

Good luck with that...!

(thumbs down for HMRC)

[Anonymous Coward]

lol

you said cock-up... teeheehee

[dervheid]

let's just be grateful...

that the BOFH and PFY don't appear to work for HMRC.

Or DO THEY?

The heavily insulated one with the shielded pockets and additional ground strap.

[Mike]

It's a virus. Honest.

W32.IT.NuLab has infected the network again...

[Steve Crook]

It's no surprise really...

But they'll still be telling us that the Id card scheme will go ahead without a hitch. It's a bit like that Microsoft joke.

Q. How many MS engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

A. None, they redefine darkness as the de-facto standard.

As far as IT (and a few other things) goes HM Govt. have redefined success.

[Anonymous Coward]

tax credits

just another example of stupidity - the government giveth and taketh away. with a huge inefficiency margin. Why not just adjust the tax code for working families? Well then the government wouldn't be seen to be 'giving' something.

I have seen a few cases where the gov.uk issues a a payment and a corresponding decreased tax code (more tax to pay) in the very same month.

[seatrotter]

nice :)

"..., the government top provider of IT-related disasters,..."

Classic

[Paul]

How hard would it be just to link it to PAYE for cripes sake!

How hard would it be not to tax people in the first place

[Anonymous John]

Re Oh Dear

Her clients are working in the construction industry. The only class of self employed who have tax deducted at souurce.

Accountants don't trust them to pay up easily, anymore than the Inland Revenue does.

[Edward Amsden]

@Paul

A government cannot survive without taxes. Doing it fairly, now that is another matter.

Here in the U.S. we spend <i>billions</i> every year in "tax compliance" costs, because of our huge tax code. There is a proposal in the House of Representatives to replace the tax code with a 23% inclusive sales tax, removing all corporate and individual income and capital gains taxes. A monthly prebate will be sent to every family for taxes on spending up to the "poverty level", i.e. the amount of money that must be spent on necessities.

I hope this goes through. Income tax is a really bad way to do things...

[Steve]

Not (unsurprisingly) their only bugs

The online tax return has numerous errors in it too... like not being able to enter 0 for a rounded down value and not accepting a date range in a box needing a range of dates.

2 weeks and they still haven't fixed these, though they did recommend workarounds which would require me to accept a false declaration.

For the icon, I've chosen the lovely night sight image of Gordon Brown helping the poor[9][9][9][9] himself.

[Slaine]

New Labour Virus Alert

W32.IT.NuLab is a new one. I've only ever come across Gov-R.SH.iT4.Brains and Gov-local.tw@ to date.

[call me scruffy]

Biggest contributor?

I think you're forgetting the CSA. Mindfull that some mother's don't know who the father is, the CSA system is to stick a pin in the phone book, and bill the indicated number for CSA payments... It's only a matter of time before "mothercare" is charged for child support.

[RW]

@ Edward Amsden

I used to work in the property tax field, so have a passing familiarity with some of the theory of taxation. The most credible analysis I ran across was, roughly, "the sales tax (a tax on consumption); the income tax; and the property tax (a tax on wealth) taken individually are all highly inequitable taxes, but in combination the three yield a very equitable taxation system."

Also for your consideration, this (paraphrased) quote from a former Canajun minister of finance: "Sure, we could go to flat income tax; we already have only 3 tax brackets in Canada. But you still have to define "income", and that's where all the complications arise."

Merely offered as food for thought.

My own belief is that a lot of the difficulties with taxation systems arise from trying to use revenue measures as instruments of social change, behavior modification, etc. Eventually the tail begins to wag the dog, and revenue collection suffers, whence all sorts of illnesses of the body politic arise.

But to expect significant change is probably a daydream. There are too many people with vested interests in the existing hodge-podge, and redistribution of tax burden, even in a zero-sum manner, will create too many losers *and* winners to ever win approval of the electorate.

The best strategy is that of the ostrich: bury your head in the sand and resolutely ignore the news.