A YORK couple's child tax credit was stopped after the Inland Revenue mistakenly thought they were paying out more than £129,000 for child care.

Kerry Shield, 26, and her partner, Daniel Durrant, 29, of Dijon Avenue, Acomb, say a blunder by the Inland Revenue has left them struggling to pay their 15-month-old daughter Jasmine's nursery bills.

Kerry said the Inland Revenue had:

Mistaken their annual nursery bill of £2,496 for the weekly cost, which was actually £48

Calculated their total nursery bill as £129,792 a year, even though this was more than five times the pair's joint income of £25,000, and Jasmine only went to nursery for one-and-a-half days a week

Paid Kerry £255 a month in child tax credit when she should have received about £70

Stopped the tax credit without warning and demanded they repay £1,384.

Kerry, who works part-time at Norwich Union, first learned there had been a mistake when she went to the bank and the child tax credit had not been paid in.

She said: "On the application for child tax credit, I informed them that our joint annual income was £25,000. On their calculations our entire income would pay for around ten weeks' childcare and nothing else.

"They told me it was just an error. I was really upset about it but now I am really angry.

"It is unbelievable. It is ridiculous that they thought I was paying that amount for nursery."

She said at one point she thought she might have to leave her job as she would not be able to afford Jasmine's nursery bill without the benefit. But one of her friends offered to look after Jasmine one day a week to help her cope.

Kerry is now appealing against the decision to stop her child tax credit and she has complained to York MP Hugh Bayley.

"I don't feel I should be held responsible for their mistake. It is not my fault. I was honest on my forms," she said.

She is now worried about how she will find the money to repay the Inland Revenue.

An Inland Revenue spokesman said he couldn't comment on individual cases, but this was an isolated problem and it was being investigated.

"We have not been inundated with this sort of problem before," he said.

"Anyone who experiences any problems with their child tax credit should call the helpline on 0845 3003900."

Earlier this month, the Evening Press reported that York single mum Tracy Brind was left without child tax credit after a computer error deleted her two-year-old son Harry from the Inland Revenue's records.

We also reported Vicki Mordue, of Wheldrake, feared she might end up on the streets with her two-year-old daughter, Rebecca, after her child tax credit was stopped without warning.

Updated: 08:30 Monday, March 15, 2004