§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer following his account of classification of personal tax credits on page 216 of the Budget Red Book, how much of the expenditure on the WFTC in the latest year for which figures are available is less than equal to the tax liability of the household; how much expenditure on credits is exceeding liability; and what estimates he has made of his breakdown for the(a) child tax credit and (b) workers tax credit. [53648]
§ Dawn PrimaroloFor 2001–02, around 12 per cent. of the working families tax credit scores as negative tax.
For the working tax credit (WTC) and child tax credit (CTC), the latest available estimates are that about 10–11 per cent. of the new tax credits will score as negative tax in 2004–05 and later years. The proportion will be slightly higher, at about 13.5 per cent., in 2003–04. As part of the transitional arrangements child allowance payments (at enhanced CTC rates) to income support and jobseeker's allowance recipients will still count as social security benefits in the first year of the new credits, and are not included in the tax credit total until 2004–05. As these recipients are likely to have much lower income tax liabilities than other WTC and CTC recipients, the proportion scoring as tax falls in 2004–05.
Separate figures for WTC and CTC are not available.