ANGRY MPs blasted the taxman yesterday after it was revealed benefit overpayments are expected to soar to more than £1.3billion over the next two years.

They said it “defied belief” that officials had cut back on work to reduce fraud and errors in tax credits despite vast losses.

Meg Hillier, head of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said the authorities had lost sight of their duty to look after taxpayers’ cash.

Bosses at HMRC expect overpayments to rise from 4.9 per cent of the total handed out in 2016-17 to 6 per cent this year.

They say cutting fraud has been “deprioritised” because tax credits are to be replaced by Universal Credit.

A report by the committee also slammed tax chiefs for giving away £417billion in 105 tax reliefs in the past year but having no idea of the cost of a further 239 rebates it made.

Ms Hillier said HMRC was under pressure, “the cracks are showing” and it had lost its “incentive to bring fraud and errors under control”.

She added: “It lacks understanding of the costs of a vast swathe of tax reliefs, which means it cannot take an informed view on their value for money.”