HC Deb 22 July 2004 vol 424 cc483-4W
Mr. Webb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 10 December 2003,Official Report, columns 494–95W, on tax credits, if he will update the tables for each month for which figures are available. [185014]

Dawn Primarolo

The number of manual tax credits payments issued in each month between December 2003 and March 2004 is shown in the table. Manual giro payments are made particularly to deal with an immediate change in circumstance pending automatic payments being adjusted.

1Number of manual tax credit payments 2Number of automatic direct payments (million)
December 2003 14,000 11.5
January 2004 16,000 10.5
February 2004 17,000 10.5
March 2004 22,000 12.5
Notes:
1. These figures cover all manual payments—that is, giro payments issued by local offices, or issued by other Inland Revenue offices but outside the main tax credits automatic payment mechanisms. They are rounded to the nearest 1,000. The previous figures covered only same-day payments issued by local offices.
2. The numbers of automatic direct payments are rounded to the nearest 0.5 million.