Money with your name on it?

Mike glued his hand to a tax office desk

BBC Radio 4's Inside Money was broadcast on Saturday, 26 July and Monday, 28 July, 2003

The first programme in the series looks at the chaotic introduction of the government's flagship new tax credit system.

 Listen to the programme

Six million families were entitled to money from the new child tax credit and working tax credit which were launched in April 2003.

The new credits were designed as top up payments to help lower-paid families, and for some they could add up to several thousand pounds of extra income a year.

The waiting game

Claimants were told the tax credit money "had their name on it", but listener Mike Maddison from Enmore in Somerset is just one of at least 400,000 people who had to wait for their money.

The family's income was modest, around £200 a week after tax, and so under the old tax credit regime, they were entitled to an extra £60 from the government to help them manage.

I wanted to bring the whole cause to everybody's attention and to embarrass the government Mike Maddison

They applied for the new system last year, months in advance. But by April they had still heard nothing. The old payments stopped, but no new payments were forthcoming.

The delay was disastrous. Mike could no longer afford to run the car he needed to get to work, and he lost his job.

Sticky situation

After more than 200 attempts to contact the Inland Revenue helpline, he had had enough of waiting.

So he went down to his local tax office armed with a tube of superglue determined to protest. When the office could not help him, he stuck his hand to a desk.

He says: "I wanted to bring the whole cause to everybody's attention and to embarrass the government."

After making his stand, Mike did eventually get what he was owed, but he is angry that it took such a gesture for his case to be resolved.

Mike joined Inside Money to investigate why things went so badly wrong, for him and thousands of other claimants.

Ultimately his journey led him to the Treasury, and the government minister responsible, the Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo.

He had lost his job because of the problems - should she lose hers?

Presenter: Lesley Curwen
Producer: Jennifer Clarke