This week I've been helping two residents in Dover & Deal, the constituency where I'm the Conservative Parliamentary candidate. One has suffered the tax credit system for five years. They've messed up her finances with overpayments and reclaims so much, they've made her go bankrupt. Earlier this week she told me she had £5 till the end of the week and didn't know how she'd feed her two young children. The file is horrific. The other is owed thousands and thousands in maintenance from her former husband and is meant to be paid ongoing as well. Can she collect a bean? No. As the CSA is involved, only they can collect it and they are in such chaos they've spent the last year passing the file back and forth. She is wondering how she will feed her daughter. It makes my blood boil to see people treated in such a way.
The saying goes that the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small. The more so under Labour. Their mill wheels are grinding the poorest into the dust. For me it underlines how bad Government is at managing complex payment systems and the need for simplicity. For the least well off more so than for anyone else, certainty, simplicity, ease of understanding and actually getting hold of money that is due to be paid over is essential. There is no capital base or rainy day fund to fall back on for people who live hand to mouth. A big task for the Conservatives will be a style of Government where you know where you stand and you can understand. I for one hope that will include a deep cleansing of the tax credit system and a reform of the CSA wider than the one shortly to come into force. The poorest in our communities deserve nothing less and should be treated with compassion and respect.
