§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many child and working tax credit appeals against awards have been(a) lodged and (b) heard; and how many of the appeals were found in (i) favour of the appellant and (ii) against the appellant in each of the last 12 months; [172949]
(2) what the average waiting time was from receipt of the appeal, for a child and working tax credit appeal to be heard, in each of the last 12 months. [172950]
§ Dawn PrimaroloUp to the end of April 2004 Inland Revenue submitted to the Appeals Service about 1,300 written appeals against tax credit decisions.
I understand from the Appeals Service that about 265 appeals had been heard by a tribunal by the end of March 2003. Others appeals were settled without a tribunal hearing, were withdrawn, struck out, not accepted as duly made or were outstanding.
The number of appeals heard by tribunals in each month to March 2004 are as follows:
891W
Month Number of appeals heard by tribunals1 June 2003 5 July 2003 15 August 2003 15 September 2003 15 October 2003 15
Month Number of appeals heard by tribunals1 November 2003 15 December 2003 15 January 2004 35 February 2004 60 March 2004 75 Total to March 2004 265 1 Rounded to the nearest 5 cases. About 10 of these cases were found in favour of the appellant.
For cases going to tribunal hearing, the estimated average time between submission to the Appeals Service and the hearing is about 11 weeks.