Tax credits insanity

while pensioners are not claiming what the the law entitles them to,

These figures should deeply concern the government," said Gordon Lishman, Age Concern England director-general.

"It's shocking that up to £4.1bn in money benefits is failing to reach the pockets of pensioners while one in five live in poverty.

"Despite the spiralling levels of Council Tax, around two million older people are missing out on Council Tax Benefit, as £1.1bn lies unclaimed.

Not that this isn't understandable that they do not know what the law lets them get, the fiendishly complex nature of the Tax Credit system means that even the people supposed to administer it cannot understand it. But saying that the people supposed to administer tax credits cannot even count the number of people that they are supposed to be paying out to

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says there are 1.9m lone parents in the country, yet 2.1m get government money.