Nursery World - Nurseries demand fraud money back

Nursery organisations have accused the Inland Revenue of 'doing a Pontius Pilate' by washing its hands and refusing to intervene to reimburse care providers losing money under the Working Tax Credit scheme. Both the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) and the Scottish Independent Nurseries Association (SINA) condemned the Inland Revenue's stance over the issue. Rosemary Murphy, NDNA chief executive, said, 'Nurseries are the losers here. There has to be a mechanism in place so that if parents disappear overnight and do not use other childcare, then we have every right to claim some of that money. The money should go to the childcarer, not the parent. This is a nonsense system.'

Both the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) and the Scottish Independent Nurseries Association (SINA) condemned the Inland Revenue's stance over the issue. Rosemary Murphy, NDNA chief executive, said, 'Nurseries are the losers here. There has to be a mechanism in place so that if parents disappear overnight and do not use other childcare, then we have every right to claim some of that money. The money should go to the childcarer, not the parent. This is a nonsense system.'

Patricia McGinty, a director of SINA, said, 'We would support protection for providers. What is the point of the Government putting in all of this money and increasing the number of places when there is a systematic abuse of the system? There's nothing we can do about it; we're powerless because we don't know who is receiving Working Tax Credit (WTC) in the first place.'

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