Question: Use the following highlights to write an article:

The proposed new powers will be used against 3,000 people a year who have received too much in tax credits. New power known as ‘Direct Recovery of Debt’, and set to be granted to Treasury. Around 10% of families involved have household income of under £20k a year.
Answer: The taxman is already under fire over proposed powers to plunder unpaid income tax direct from people’s bank accounts. But it emerged last night that under controversial new powers Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will also be allowed to snatch money from low-paid families in receipt of tax credits. Even struggling families who are only held to owe the Government money because of mistakes by HMRC will still face having the cash snatched straight from their banks. Tax Credits are payments made to people on such low incomes they are deemed to need financial help with family costs. And on HMRC’s own figures the proposed new powers will be used against 3,000 people a year who have received too much in tax credits, which are designed to help low-paid families with children. News of the HMRC’s plans to use new powers against the poor come on top of mounting outrage from bankers, accountants, small businesses and civil liberties charity Liberty, over the proposal that the taxman should be able to snatch unpaid income tax direct from citizen’s bank accounts. But it has now become clear that the same new power - known as ‘Direct Recovery of Debt’, and set to be granted to the Treasury if a proposal by Chancellor George Osborne goes ahead – will also be used against people paid tax credits. Tax Credits are payments made to people on such low incomes they are deemed to need financial help with family costs. But recipients have to estimate in advance how much they will be paid, before their tax credits are calculated accordingly. If people then receive pay rises, or other additional income, and do not tell HMRC straight away, they are then deemed to have been overpaid, and then have to give some of the money back. As they are by definition already on low pay, getting the money together to pay it back can be difficult. But under the new Direct Recovery of Debt proposals, the HMRC will have the power to seize the money straight from the accounts of the people involved,. A spokesman for the tax collectors last night admitted that it estimated 3,000 tax credit recipients a year would be hit, but insisted it would only take money if it could leave a minimum of £5,000 in the account involved. A spokesman for HMRC (head office above) admitted that it estimated 3,000 tax credit recipients a year would be hit, but insisted it would only take money if it could leave a minimum of £5,000 in the account involved. But campaigning group False Economy, which discovered the plans to hit the accounts of the low-paid only thanks to a Freedom of Information request, yesterday said it feared the new powers would end up costing dear ever-growing numbers of people. According to the HMRC’s own figures the total owed back to the Government in overpaid tax credits stands at more than £5.6bn. Around 10 per cent of the families involved have a household income of less than £20,000 a year, and 118,000 of those being chased over debts – which could have been caused by the taxman’s own errors – earn less than £5,000 a year. False Economy spokeswoman Chamina Jayanetti said: ‘These figures show that tax credit overpayments are just a state-created debt that many families can never pay off, caused by a combination of low pay, costly childcare, and government incompetence and sleight of hand. ‘A personal debt burden of £5.6bn – more than £1bn of it dating back more than five years – has turned a system that was supposed to support parents into what is effectively a “parent tax”.’ Even before receiving the power to snatch cash from the bank accounts of the low paid, HMRC had already recently for the first time started using private debt collectors to collect money overpaid in tax-credits. Those private debt collectors proceeded to handly more than 200,000 cases in the year to 2013 alone. Yesterday Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: ‘Tax credits are there to make sure people get a decent standard of income, but the sharp rise in debts from overpaid tax credits suggests this policy is having the opposite effect. ‘Seeking to improve the accuracy of tax credit payments is sensible, but HMRC needs to tread carefully. HMRC has a poor track record in managing people’s data and dealing with overpayments. ‘It does not take much to push families into financial trouble and mistakes by HMRC will be harmful.’ Last night an HMRC spokesman said it did not yet have the power to take money from debtors accounts, and went on: ‘HMRC’s initial analysis suggests that, in the first two full years of operation of Direct Recovery of Debt, there will be around 3,000 cases a year that include some form of tax credit debt. ‘This is out of a total population of around 17,000 debtors a year whose debts are expected to be subject to this policy. This number is expected to fall significantly in future years. ‘HMRC estimates that the debtors who will be affected by this policy have an average of £5,800 in tax and tax credit debts and around half have more than £20,000 in their bank and building society accounts. In all cases, £5,000 will be left across the debtor’s accounts after the debt has been recovered.’