17th August 2009.

It was the issue on which I drove our present Prime Minister to distraction. When he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown even asked my Party Leader – then Menzies Campbell MP – to try to shut me up about it. To Ming’s credit, he told Gordon Brown that he wouldn’t silence me, but that we should meet to discuss the matter. And I did meet Gordon Brown - in his modest room in the Treasury. And he did try to bully me into submission. And we did have a row. And he didn’t listen. And I think it was then that I finally concluded that Mr. Brown must be impossible to work with, and that he would never be a good Prime Minister.

And I regret to say that I have not had reason to revise this judgment.

And what was the mighty issue at stake? It was the tax credits system, and its many administrative faults, which led to literally millions of people being asked for literally billions of pounds back. And eventually things were so bad that some people on relatively modest incomes would not even claim the tax credits to which they were entitled, because they were petrified of having to pay them back.

For years, tax credit cases clogged up my local Advice Centres, and I must have raised over 1,000 cases since I was elected in 2001.

Tax credits were Gordon’s pet plan to encourage work and to end poverty. He poured billions of pounds into them. And, of course, they did help many people.

But I could never understand why our Prime Minister was in denial about the terrible administrative problems, and the unfairness of people having to pay back money even if the mistakes that had led to overpayments had been made by the Inland Revenue, and even if the person receiving the money could not have reasonably known of the error.

There is often a similarly great gulf between Government plans and the reality on the ground. Sometimes it is staff cuts that mean services are delivered ineffectively. Sometimes it is over-reliance on new technology, combined with call centres where people can never get through to a human being who can actually listen and help.

Tax credits problems are still very common, and I still see a lot of people with such problems. But tax credits are far from the only problem.

The Jobcentre offices have recently been struggling to deal with higher customer numbers, given the recession – particularly when many jobs have been cut in the Jobcentres themselves in the last two years. And the new call centres can be incredibly frustrating for people looking for a human being who can give straight answers to straight questions.

The Pensions Agency also often struggles to get things right, and I am frequently amazed by the poor standard of service which people receive when they are coming up to pension age, or have just retired.

And, of course, the Child Support Agency and its successor organization continue to struggle to process claims effectively and to deal with circumstances where one parent is too often determined to avoid his or her responsibilities.

In all these areas, it would be good to think that people could get decent service, or could easily secure a solution when matters go wrong. But people often feel that getting answers is impossible, and they give up.

One of the ways that MPs can help their constituents is to take up cases such as this, and to insist on answers. And where agencies have got it wrong or let people down, an MP ought to be able to get a solution, or even insist on some compensation.

Of course, there is also usually an independent Ombudsman who can investigate maladministration, and insist on redress when he or she believes that an agency is getting it wrong.

So if you are receiving poor service in these or other areas, please let me know – or your own MP if you live outside my Constituency.

We cannot always guarantee to wave a magic wand, but we can help to cut through the bureaucracy, and make sure that people get a fair hearing.

Ever,

David.