§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, when discussing with persons and organisations the possibility of the maintenance of tax allowances for children overseas, or the payments of child allowances for children overseas, he will consider granting these requests where irrefutable proof that the children are legitimately in existence and are the offspring of the parents making the claims or, where adoptions have been claimed, the proof is produced; and to what extent he estimates that false claims have been made for non-existent children or for children of persons other than the claimants' for the longest and most convenient stated period of time.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonAs my right hon. Friend the Minister of State told the House on 13th April, we propose that the special rate of child tax allowances for the parents of certain children living abroad should continue for the time being. Claims will continue to be subject to the procedures for verification described in my recent answer to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North (Mr. Howell) on 12th April.
In 1968 the Public Accounts Committee reported upon the Inland Revenue survey of claims to personal allowances by immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, which suggested that over one-half of those claims were false. No further survey has been undertaken, but the Inland Revenues experience of the birth and marriage certificates subsequently checked, and of cases investigated, indicates that false claims have continued at a significant level, although at a lower level than was shown by the 1968 report. In the last two years around one-third of certificates in support of claims for children living abroad which have been examined by the Inland Revenue have been found to be unacceptable.