§ Mr. ClappisonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to receive the Inland Revenue report on benchmarking the level of fraud in the working families tax credit; what his timetable is for responding to it; and if he plans to make public an assessment of the level of fraud following receipt of the report. [32642]
847W
§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has estimated the amount of fraud and error in(a) working families tax credit and (b) disabled persons tax credit. [33599]
§ Dawn PrimaroloThe Inland Revenue are currently analysing the data from their compliance benchmarking exercise. We shall be considering the results, and questions of publication, within the next few months.
§ Mr. ClappisonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 18 December 2001,Official Report, column 197W, how many instances of potentially fraudulent or improper claims to tax credits have been communicated to the Inland Revenue via (a) the Benefits Anti Fraud Hotline and (b) the Childcare Tax Credit Hotline; and in each case how many of these reports have resulted in (i) the recovery of over payments, (ii) the imposition of penalties and (iii) prosecutions. [25220]
§ Dawn PrimaroloThe table shows the number of allegations about potentially improper applications for working families tax credit (WFTC) and disabled person's tax credit (DPTC), communicated to the Inland Revenue through the Benefits Anti-Fraud Hotline and the Childminder's Hotline.
Number Allegations communicated to IR via Benefits Anti-Fraud hotline1 16,676 WFTC/DPTC recoveries 530 WFTC/DPTC penalties 18 WFTC prosecutions 2 Allegations communicated to IR via Childminder's hotline2 1,672 WFTC/DPTC recoveries 4 WFTC/DPTC penalties 0 Prosecutions 0 1 1 October 1999 to 31 December 2001 2 April 2000 to 31 December 2001