JAMMED phonelines, mailing mistakes and malfunctioning computers - that's the experience of hundreds of Evening Press readers as they try to claim their new tax credits.

We have been been inundated with calls and e-mails following our revelations on Wednesday that the Inland Revenue's £53 million Tax Credit Helpline has been constantly engaged for over a week.

We have heard stories of delays, incompetence and sleepless nights as families who applied months in advance are still in the dark about what payments they are to receive.

Many still await award notices, with mortgages to be paid, childcare costs to be covered and free prescriptions that cannot be claimed.

The new Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit came into effect on April 7.

Out of an estimated 5.75 million families eligible, the Inland Revenue has received 3.9 million applications.

A spokesman for the Inland Revenue said that more than a million payments had already been made to people who receive their credits on a weekly basis.

Those who wanted to be paid monthly would receive the money at the start of May as planned.

He said: "I am very sorry if people have been having problems but the number of cases is small. Most of those affected returned their application after the deadline of January 31. "They can contact their local Inland Revenue Office if they wish to arrange an emergency payment."

But he added that the offices would be closed until Tuesday due to the bank holiday. A spokeswoman for the Citizen's Advice Bureau in Selby said: "We have so many people contacting us and there is nothing we can do for them.

"The Inland Revenue say the money will be back-dated, but if people had money to spare until then, they wouldn't need tax credits."

In one of the more farcical mix-ups we were told about, a 35-year-old woman from New Earswick was told she was not eligible for tax credits because it seemed she had a 33-year-old daughter.

Michelle Johnson, whose daughter is actually 13, spent days trying to get through to the helpline to sort out the error.

She said: "When I eventually got through, I was told the computer had got her date of birth wrong and put 1969 instead of 1989."

Acomb woman Jenny Kitching has faied to receive her payments, despite filling in the paperwork in November.

Jenny, of Bellwood Drive, Acomb, said: "We had been claiming Working Families' Tax Credit for two years before this and my partner claimed Children's Tax Credit. We were receiving £179 a week so you can imagine how much we are out of pocket. I have had to pay out more than £300 in child care costs this month."

She contacted York MP Hugh Bayley and was able to go to the Inland Revenue offices for an emergency payment.

The Inland Revenue 0845 300 3900 number is not the only one which is jammed. BBC Radio North Yorkshire has been taking up to 200 calls a day because people are calling its 0845 300 3000 number by mistake.

Updated: 10:27 Friday, April 18, 2003