§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in view of the number of persons who claim for as many as six dependent children for tax relief purposes in Great Britain with as many claims additionally for children overseas where no birth certificates or documents are available, thus obviating the payment of any income tax, whether he will investigate the best means of dealing with these practices.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonThe Inland Revenue already investigates claims for dependent children so far as is possible within the resources available to it. I would remind my hon. Friend that child tax allowances are to be phased out under the new child benefit scheme
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will give, for the longest and most convenient period of time, the number of persons claiming tax allowance for their children not resident in Great Britain, the number of children for whom the allowance was being claimed, the amount of such allowances and the estimated cost to the revenue of these allowances; and on what basis investigations are generally made to ascertain that the persons concerned are entitled to claim such allowances especially where no birth certificates or registration of the children are available.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonI would refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave 717W on 13th January to my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Cunningham) and, as regards the steps to prevent false claims, to the answer the Minister of State gave on 4th August 1976 to the hon. Member for Beckenham (Mr. Goodhart). Where a claimant is asked to produce a birth certificate and is unable to do so such other evidence as is available is considered.