A Treasury investigator says the Internal Revenue Service has paid out more than $110 billion in tax credits over the past decade to people who didn’t qualify for them.

The Earned Income Tax Credits were intended for poor working families. In a report released Tuesday, the IRS inspector general said more than one-fifth of all credits paid under the program went to people who didn’t qualify.

The inspector general said the IRS is not doing enough to reduce the improper payments. The report said IRS efforts are hampered by unscrupulous tax preparers as well as honest families that have trouble calculating the complicated credit.

The EITC is one of the nation’s largest anti-poverty programs. In 2011, more than 27 million families received nearly $62 billion in credits.

(AP)