Birkenhead MP Frank Field is demanding constituents who wrongly had their tax credits withheld should be reimbursed.

His call came as compensation payments totalling almost £87,000 have been paid out to tax credit claimants who suffered as the result of a botched outsourcing plan.

HM Revenue and Customs ended its deal with contractor Concentrix in November last year after a series of problems with the arrangement, which ended up saving less than a fifth of the £1 billion originally estimated.

Concentrix was brought in to help the taxman reduce fraud and error in the tax credit system, in some cases by stopping the benefit being paid to some claimants entirely.

Spending watchdog the National Audit Office found that during the life of the contract, between November 2014 and its early termination in November 2016, there were 108,000 cases where claimants' tax credits were adjusted or terminated.

Mr Field said: "My constituents who were wrongly denied cash to feed their children will totally relate to the catalogue of problems identified.

"It is important of course for HMRC to learn the right lessons from these problems.

"Equally important in the short-term though is to reimburse my constituents – and many other families on low incomes across the country – who went without food and got themselves into huge amounts of debt while Concentrix wrongly withheld their tax credits."

A Concentrix spokesman said: "We welcomed the opportunity to engage with the National Audit Office in its inquiry.

"This was a hugely complex contract and programme, and as the report highlights, a number of issues emerged at the outset which laid the foundations for the challenges experienced throughout, particularly last year.

"We look forward to discussing the report with the Public Accounts Committee in order to ensure all lessons can be learned."