SINGLE mum Kerry Thomas says she is terrified her personal details may have fallen into the hands of criminals after the Government's blunder.

The 32-year-old, who lives in Stockton Road, Penhill, with her son Kai, could be one of 25 million people whose personal details were lost by HM Revenue and Customs.

She said: "This is terrifying, we're told all the time to shred our bank statements, not to write down our pin numbers and to destroy official documents.

"And all along our own Government is letting us down."

The security lapse has been blamed on a junior official who sent the entire child benefit database to the National Audit Office via unregistered post on October 18.

The Chancellor Of The Exchequer, Alistair Darling, said he had ordered an inquiry into security procedures at Revenue and Customs and said there was no evidence to suggest the information - which includes names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit numbers, national insurance numbers and bank and building society account details - had fallen into the wrong hands.

But Kerry says it's too little too late.

"If they don't know where these disks are, how can they be so sure they haven't fallen into the hands of criminals?" she said.

"This isn't something we can forget about in a week, if the disks aren't found it'll be hanging over us for years."

Kerry said she would never consider carrying a Government ID card after the recent error.

She said: "Anyone who was just coming round to the idea of identity cards will be fighting it all the way now.

"You just can't trust anyone.

"Gordon Brown can kiss goodbye to that idea."

Lynda Warren, from the Swindon branch of the No2ID campaign, agrees.

She said: "I applaud Kerry for asking her question.

"While it's bordering on unbelievable that the Government has, for whatever reason, discarded all of this personal data, this has now become personal.

"Clearly, the only people responsible enough to secure personal data are those who own it.

"I can't believe the Government are continuing to persist with this archaic idea of storing national ID information and a database when they can't even look after the information they already have."