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Business of the House

The hon. Gentleman is always fair and reasonable in his observations in the House, but my recollection is that the last Minister at the Dispatch Box was my right hon. Friend the Paymaster General. I am sure that he could have used his ingenuity to raise that issue during an hour of Treasury questions. Nevertheless, before the hon. Gentleman gets too agitated, I recognise that there have been individual cases where the tax credit system has not worked as well as it should have done. That is one of the reasons why my right hon. Friend the Paymaster General has been looking very carefully at finding ways in which to improve the operation of the scheme. However, I emphasise that the overwhelming majority of people and families in receipt of tax credits have received that money successfully and that that has provided a major improvement in their standard of living and allowed many people to return to work, thus allowing families who would otherwise struggle financially to achieve a proper standard of living.