HMRC sends private tax details to 50,000 wrong customers

Tax credit claimants were apparently sent other people's personal information in the post along with their annual award notice, according to reports. One woman from Hyde in Greater Manchester told the BBC she had received a letter that included her neighbour's earnings. She also got the bank sort code and the last four digits of the bank account number of another claimant. An HMRC spokesman blamed a printing error, and played down the danger of identity theft. ''HMRC takes data security extremely seriously,'' he said. ''Unfortunately an error has occurred in one of the tax credi...