Tax Credits (Hansard, 12 April 2000)

§ Mr. Boswell
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the differences are between administration targets for the handling of tax credit related claims in respect of(a) working families and (b) disabled people. [118011]

§ Mr. Timms
[holding answer 6 April 2000]: The targets adopted by the Tax Credit Office for handling applications for Working Families Tax Credit and Disabled Person's Tax Credit for the period from 1 October 1999 to 31 March 2000 were the ones which the Benefits Agency had agreed for Family Credit and Disability Working Allowance respectively for the period from 1 April to 30 September 1999. The targets were:
Working Families Tax Credit

to clear 90 per cent. of express applications (those from employees making their first application) within five working days

to clear 95 per cent. of non-express applications within 42 working days (and 60 per cent. within 13 working days)

to process 91 per cent. of all applications accurately.

160W
Disabled Person's Tax Credit

to clear 90 per cent. of applications within 43 working days (60 per cent. within 17 working days)

to process 94 per cent. of all applications accurately.

My hon. Friend the Paymaster General is currently discussing with the Inland Revenue all targets for the year 2000–01.

§ Mr. Field
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will disaggregate by income decile the number of families claiming the child care component of the Working Families Tax Credit; [117502]
(2) if he will disaggregate by income decile the number of people in receipt of each tax credit since its introduction. [117503]

§ Mr. Timms
[holding answer 3 April 2000]: The two tax credits introduced to date are the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) and the Disabled Person's Tax Credit (DPTC). Insufficient data on income are provided by applicants for these tax credits to allocate them between decile groups of income as conventionally defined for such analyses. Also, household survey data available for analysis do not yet cover families receiving the tax credits. So it is not yet possible to provide the requested analysis for recipients of the tax credits.