WORKING mum Julie Acaster is doing exactly what the Government wants.

Despite bringing up two children on her own, Julie was determined not to rely on benefits. As a bus driver, she contributes both to the local community and the wider economy.

But her life is being made harder by State incompetence. The Inland Revenue has made 40 attempts to sort out her child tax credit and has yet to land on the correct figure.

When it was introduced, the child tax credit was trumpeted by ministers as a way to lift lower income families out of hardship.

Many have gained: 8,500 in York, according to Hugh Bayley. But the system's complexity, so typical of Chancellor Gordon Brown's approach, has caused serious headaches. The problems have contributed to the Government's failure to meet its laudable target of lifting one million children above the poverty line by the end of last month.

Mr Bayley himself has taken up 80 child tax credit cases with the Inland Revenue. The Citizens' Advice Bureau in York is helping many more people "whose household budgets have become impossible under this system".

This is intolerable. The families affected cannot afford to pay for the Inland Revenue's mistakes.

Julie Acaster is doing everything right. It is time the Government did right by her - and the scores of parents like her.

Updated: 10:29 Friday, April 01, 2005