CORRI Wilson MP has welcomed the decision by the UK Government not to renew the contract with US firm Concentrix. 

This was following revelations this week that the company were indiscriminately stopping people’s tax credits and accusing them of fraud with no basis in reality.

HMRC employs US firm Concentrix to identify cases of benefit fraud on a results-only basis, which appears to have led to the company sending random “phishing” letters to low income families on tax credits accusing them of committing fraud and then cutting off benefits without warning.

The revelations came as a flurry of local residents approached the MP for Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock for help after their tax credits were stopped. Constituents were left with nowhere else to turn after calls to the company went unanswered.

Ms Wilson MP said: “It is welcome that the tax credit fraud and over-payment contract will not be renewed with Concentrix. With millions of low and middle income families in receipt of tax credits, these indiscriminate accusations were causing real distress and hardship.

“I have had constituents contacting me over the past few weeks in dire need because Concentrix had concocted some spurious reason to stop their money.

“I have spoken to single parents who have been accused of being married to one of their children, and one woman who was supposed to be having a relationship with her father.

“Many people weren’t even given an explanation, with some spending hours on hold to the company, only to be cut off.

“The Concentrix contract was designed to save £1 billion in fraud and overpayment, but when you privatise the welfare state you inevitably find that the bottom line is more important than people’s lives and, in this case, more important than the truth.

“This whole episode leaves many questions to be answered about UK Government incompetence. They have to come clean on how much was actually saved. There are reports that civil servants have now been drafted in to clean up the mess left behind – and this will also have a cost. The taxpayer has an absolute right to know how we got into this mess and what plans the UK Government has to sort it out.’’