Families across Oxfordshire are struggling to pay bills after falling foul of the Government's new tax credits system.

The new system was introduced in April to pay benefits to families with children.

The old working families tax credit system was overhauled, with payments made direct to the mother, instead of the father.

But about half a million families across the country have been experiencing late payments and difficulty getting through to Inland Revenue helplines.

Anne Howkins, 40, a dinner lady at Headington Middle School, has been forced to use a credit card because she is still waiting for payments, after submitting a claim last October.

She and her husband Brian, 40, who is a builder, both work and are entitled to payments to help them care for their two children, Mark and Vicky, aged 10 and 13.

Mrs Howkins said: "It's incredibly frustrating. Child tax credits of £50 a month were stopped from my husband's wages in April but we have received nothing yet to replace that.

"I have spent about £30 trying to get through to helplines but without success.

"There are five options to try, but they are always engaged or out of order and I can never get through.

"We did get a letter from the Inland Revenue last week to say that they were considering our application but the letter was dated June 5, and said staff would be contacting me in January.

"It's quite clear that the letter should have been sent out in January.

"Most of my friends have now received their payments, so they are finally getting through but it's clear that the system has had major problems."

Lisa Youngman, 30, of Darell Way, Abingdon, who has three children aged 13, 10 and seven, has also experienced problems with the system.

She said the Inland Revenue lost her application form, causing major delays, and then paid money into an incorrect account, before she finally received some money.

She added: "There are still some payments outstanding.

"It's been a nightmare trying to get through to the Inland Revenue to discuss my case and I have been in touch with my MP Evan Harris about it."

Mrs Youngman visited the Inland Revenue's Trinity House office in Cowley to complain and was given an emergency interim payment.

Chancellor Gordon Brown said nine out of 10 families were eligible for the credits. A £12m advertising campaign was hugely successful and the Inland Revenue was unprepared for the mass of applications.

Ian Mitchell, a spokesman for the Government News Network, said the system had been under pressure but payments were now starting to be processed.

He added nationally, 4.25m people had applied and four million had received payments. There are still 250,000 applications being processed, with some coming from Oxfordshire.

He said that at one point the helpline was taking two million calls a day.