Paymaster general accused of misleading MPs

Lib Dems raise questions over HMRC tax credit portal fiasco

The government's paymaster general Dawn Primarolo has been accused of misleading MPs over details of internet fraud attacks against its tax credit portal.

The government has admitted that criminals stole £2.7m when the online tax credits application portal was defrauded (Computing, 26 January), but the Liberal Democrats have accused Primarolo of knowing about the fraud earlier than originally believed.

'Dawn Primarolo has seriously misled parliament by telling the select committee that she was unaware of the problem of organised fraud until late November 2005,' said David Laws MP, Liberal Democrat spokesman for work and pensions.

'The paymaster general has already been forced to admit in a written parliamentary answer that she knew about this problem in June for sure, and probably much earlier.'

Internet criminals used an estimated 6,800 stolen identities from the Department for Work and Pensions to try and defraud the tax credits portal last autumn.

Last month it was also revealed that more than 4,000 Network Rail staff identities were also stolen as part of the internet scam.