I've had to phone the tax credit helpline so often I've got the number on Friends and Family

She has received 40 different notices in 15 months from the Inland Revenue, all for different amounts.

Today the York bus driver and mother-of-two accused officials of making blunder after blunder in her case, a year after the Evening Press first highlighted her plight.

She said the problems were making her life a misery, and added: "Enough is enough."

Her complaints came as York MP Hugh Bayley revealed that he had personally taken up 80 York cases of tax credit problems with the Inland Revenue.

Julie, 28, claimed she has received up to 40 award notices in 15 months - all promising different amounts of weekly tax credits.

The latest two notices arrived within 24 hours of each other - one said she was due about £39, the other stated that the figure was £29.

"I phoned the working tax office helpline and was told the computer had generated a second award notice because of Easter. This is about the 40th notice I have had in 15 months. Every time I get a notice it is different and affects every benefit I am getting. It is a big headache.

"My housing benefit can't get sorted out because no one knows what my income is," she said, adding that she has had to pay back about £600 housing benefit.

Her latest notice also suggested she had been overpaid by £550. But Julie said that she had just finished paying back £1,500 of overpayments.

Julie, of Saxon Vale, Shipton-by-Beningbrough, said she faced a major fight, even though she is legally entitled to the tax credits as a working mum.

The Evening Press first highlighted Julie's difficulties in April 2004. She claimed the Inland Revenue had deleted her young son, Aaron, from their computer system twice, and stopped her tax credits while she was pregnant because they claimed they had overpaid her by £2,499.

They later gave her £1,000 back - then stopped her credits again, claiming they had overpaid her by £270.

Julie has regularly complained to the working tax office helpline.

"I have that number on my 'Friends and Family' now," she said. "I have two children and I work. I want to work and bring up my children on my own. I don't want to go on benefits. I am determined not to give up.

An Inland Revenue spokesman would not comment on individual cases, but said anyone experiencing problems with the tax credit system should phone the helpline on 0845 3003900.

Other mums still are having credit problems

TWO other women highlighted in the Evening Press last year because they were having tax credit problems said today that they were also still facing difficulties.

A year ago a York mother-of-seven said she was struggling to survive after her child tax credit was cut without warning.

Tracy Yates, 30, of Middleton Road, Acomb, went to the bank and discovered her weekly child tax credit was lower than usual.

A week later, she received a letter from the Inland Revenue telling her she had been overpaid, and they would be taking £100 from her benefit each week until she had repaid the money.

She said she and her partner, 37-year-old Will Hickton, were now finding it difficult to pay the bills and look after their seven children, who are aged between two and ten.

Will said a year on, their situation had got worse - with the family's benefits slashed to £67 a week and mounting debts of £1,400. Tracy said: "We are still really struggling to survive. It's worrying, as we have bills to pay."

A year ago, single mum Vicki Mordue, 35, of Main Street, Wheldrake, York, feared she and her two-year-old daughter could end up on the streets, after her child tax credit was stopped without warning.

Vicki said she was forced to give up her job in telesales when she arrived at the bank and discovered her working tax credit and child tax credit had not been paid in. She then received a letter from the Inland Revenue telling her they had withdrawn her benefits because they had overpaid her by £1,422.

She said she felt she had no choice but to quit her job, because without the tax credits she could not afford to pay nursery bills for her daughter Rebecca, now three and she would have to be at home to look after her.

But when she told the Inland Revenue she had left her job, she was told that meant she owed them even more and was given a new figure - £2,042.

A year on, Vicki is back on full benefits and receives £110 a week. She said she was in a "Catch 22 situation" where she could not afford to pay back the £2,042 arrears and could not afford to go back to work.

MPs and experts give their views

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh attacked the Government for the number of tax credit errors.

She said: "An increasing number of constituents have contacted me requesting assistance in tackling difficulties. Most commonly, these people have done nothing wrong, filling in all of the required paperwork thoroughly and honestly. Yet, due to no fault of theirs, they are finding their income severely reduced due to a miscalculation of their annual allowance by the tax credit office."

She vowed to "press the Government vigorously to rectify these mistakes", adding: "It is unacceptable to put families through this unnecessary hardship and financial difficulty."

City of York MP Hugh Bayley, pictured, said 8,500 families in York with 12,400 children between them were receiving working tax and child tax credits. On average a family earning £10,000 a year receives an extra £5,700 in tax credits; while a family on £15,000 gets £3,800.

"I have taken up 80 cases with the Inland Revenue. It should never get to the point where people have to contact their MP for something that is their entitlement.

"It is a small minority, but some of those people have had serious problems.

They are largely those who applied early and received emergency payments by GIRO which the computer still hasn't caught up with. These tax credits provide a massive benefit to thousands of families, but there have been teething problems."

Sue Grant, benefits manager at Hambleton District Council, said: "Miss Acaster's case is significantly worse than others I have come across.

"Every time her tax credit changes it has a knock-on effect for her council and housing benefits - we have to reassess her entitlement. It could be an overspend or underspend."

Rosemary Suttill, of York Citizens Advice Bureau , said the tax credit system was meant to help people on low incomes, but the system did not always work very well.

She said: 'We know of many people, often with young families, whose household budgets have become impossible under this system."

People were getting into debt and even at risk of losing their homes because of tax credit payment delays.

She said the Inland Revenue computer caused many problems and there did not seem to be a system for sorting things out quickly.

"Sometimes, quite a simple error can't be put right, no matter how hard everyone tries.

"Some of our clients seem to be surviving just on Child Benefit and Giros while they wait for their tax credit awards to be calculated correctly,' she said.

'We're worried about the children and people who are ill. They are especially vulnerable."

She said the York bureau was liaising with other bureaux in the North East and hoping to work with the Inland Revenue to improve the system.

Updated: 10:11 Friday, April 01, 2005