A MOTHER was stunned after receiving seven different letters in one day, telling her how much child tax and working tax credit she was entitled to.

Each letter from the Inland Revenue spelled out a different message for 30-year-old Claire Lund, of Doherty Walk, Foxwood, York.

One said the mother-of-two had no qualifying children and was not entitled to any tax credits.

The other six all said she had two qualifying children, but the amounts to which she was entitled differed from letter to letter.

One said a payment of £299.43 would be made on 26/9/03. Another said a payment of £291.16 would be made on 25/9/03, while a third said a payment of £16.54 would be made on 30/9/03.

Two of the letters bizarrely said that while she had two qualifying children, "three qualifying children are cared for by an approved child care provider."

To make matters even worse, all six letters said that from November 4, "Six Continents Hotels will include the credit with your pay." But Claire said she worked as a cleaner at The Retreat private psychiatric hospital in Heslington Road, York. "I've never even heard of Six Continents Hotels!"

Now, in another farcical twist, two more letters have been sent to Claire. One said she was not entitled to tax credits because "you are already part of another household for which an award is currently in payment."

The other said she was entitled, but said yet another, different payment would be made.

Claire, who has a nine-year-old daughter, Aimee, and a six-year-old son, Lewis, says she had already received several other different award notices before the seven letters. When she rang a helpline to complain after the seven arrived, she was told she might have set a world record for receiving the most such award notices.

"It's one big shambly mess," she said. "The tax credits are meant to encourage single mothers like me to go back out to work but this is doing the opposite. It is making me so stressed that I feel like giving up my job. Enough is enough. It's disgusting. When they arrived in the post, I was shocked. I was going "Oh my God, I can't open all them. I rang the helpline and said: "Which is meant to be the correct one?" I don't think they know what they are doing."

The Inland Revenue said it could not comment on individual cases because confidentiality was guaranteed, unless it was given the client's consent in writing.

Asked to comment generally on the problem of clients receiving more than one award notice, a spokesman said any such difficulties were normally caused by changes in circumstances.

But he added that he had never heard of anyone receiving so many notices in one day.

The introduction of child tax credits in the spring sparked a flood of protests to the Evening Press, with parents claiming they had been left without money and were unable to get through to the jammed Inland Revenue helpline.

Updated: 10:49 Wednesday, October 08, 2003