Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

I thank the Minister for that response. His officials have given him the most ludicrous examples to illustrate why HMRC should be allowed to use the full powers to go after individuals. The Minister was not around when tax credits went wrong. HMRC was devoid of any humanity or understanding in relation to the overpayments that were made under the tax credits scheme. That was due fundamentally to the design of the scheme; the scheme is now being fixed with a £25,000 disregard, precisely because it just does not work. However, there were at the time hundreds of thousands of cases of both overpayment and underpayment where HMRC went straight into its most aggressive recovery routine. The Minister said that it will use its judgment where appropriate; I have to tell the Minister that it does not. The rule that I read out was, I believe, inserted after the issue in relation to HMRC’s overzealous protection of public funds, which caused great distress to individuals, blew up. One can postulate an error whereby an account should not have been opened, but people have saved into it and are not entitled to the maturity bonus for one technical reason or another which has nothing to do with them. Are we to leave that to HMRC’s judgment, or are we to put a constraint on it, as I believe exists in relation to tax credits? That is the nature of this proposal. The Minister has not really answered that point. For that reason, I am not very happy with what he has said in response and would like to think further about whether the mechanism that I have raised in the amendment, or some other mechanism, is the right way forward. However, I have to say to him that HMRC’s track record in dealing with individuals when things go wrong, especially at the smaller end of business, which is not where its tradition is—it is much more used to dealing with people with more money flowing through their personal finances, and not with people at the end of the benefits spectrum—is simply not good. It is for that reason that I proposed the amendment, and I am disappointed by the Minister’s response. I shall therefore consider it further. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 41 withdrawn.