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Watchdog: Inland Revenue breaches Data Protection rules
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Mistakes by the Government's tax office have led to breaches of data
protection, 91Èȱ¬ One's Watchdog will reveal tonight – and in one case
meant a woman has been paying too much tax for almost ten years..
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Georgia Newman has told the programme she is hundreds of pounds out of
pocket because of errors by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
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Although they've
admitted responsibility, they've told Georgia they won't be refunding
all her money, because tax rebates are usually only backdated for six
years.
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Watchdog will also reveal how other mistakes by HMRC have caused
personal details to be sent to the wrong people – and even led to
identity theft.
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Presenter Nicky Campbell said: "If a private company was this careless
with your details you'd take your business elsewhere. But we can't do
that with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. We have to give them our
details. But they really shouldn't be giving them to anyone else."
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The details of Georgia Newman's case only came to light when she applied
for a mortgage earlier this year.
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She told Watchdog: "My financial advisor couldn't
understand why I was paying so much tax. HMRC said I was working two
jobs, one as a teacher in Devon and the other as a HR manager in a law
firm in Essex and that's why I was paying so much. That would have been
impossible."
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It turned out that when she came to the UK from Australia in 1998, she had
been give the same National Insurance (NI) number as Gina Newman – who did
work for the law firm in Essex.
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Gina had no idea someone else had the same NI number until she was
suddenly rung by HMRC earlier this year asking why she had quit her job.
She hadn't.
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And Gina was then sent a demand by the Revenue for money –
because they said they had overpaid her tax credits – when she had never had
any.
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Gina told Watchdog: "I'd never been paid any benefits or tax credits, I
couldn't understand what was going on. I was so worried I was going to
get bad credit."
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As both women tried to sort out the mix-up, they were sent many of each
other's personal details and information.
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Gina says: "I was told her name, date of birth, address, the name of her
daughter. I was even given her bank details. I know so much about her. I
really don't think HMRC should be giving out those sorts of details
about other people to strangers."
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Watchdog has investigated other instances of Data Protection breaches by
HMRC.
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The HMRC put together a dossier of Eric Tizzard's entire history,
containing every detail they knew about him. It had his National
Insurance number, date of birth, and every address he has ever worked
and lived at. But then they sent it all to someone completely different.
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Identity fraud expert Julian Evans has told the programme that with the
details the HMRC sent, someone could easily have applied for a credit
card, loan or mortgage in Eric's name. They could even access his bank
account and withdraw money.
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That was after it had taken Eric nine years to sort out problems caused
by another HMRC error, when they had sent two cheques for him to the wrong
address. The cheques were cashed by someone else, who then took out
cards in Eric's name.
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For years Eric had intermittent problems related
to this, including letters from debt collection agencies for money he
did not owe.
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And, just last month, HMRC sent a letter to 16,000 people saying their
personal details had been lost while it was being couriered to an
insurance company. It is not clear where those details have ended up.
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Notes to Editors
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Please credit: Watchdog, 91Èȱ¬ One, 7.30pm, Monday 19 November
2007.
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GM
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