Working Families Tax Credit (Hansard, 19 September 2002)

§ Mr. Clappison
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many(a) investigations, (b) penalties and (c) prosecutions have been instituted since 31 December 2001 in respect of working families tax credit fraud. [67777]

§ Dawn Primarolo
During the period 1 January 2002 to 30 June 2002, 13,305 investigations have been opened by the issue of the Inland Revenue's Code of Practice on enquiries, 334 penalties determined and 25 prosecutions instituted in respect of Working Families Tax Credit and Disabled Persons Tax Credit.

§ Mr. Clappison
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 25 June to the hon. Member for Havant,Official Report, column 763W, on Working Families Tax Credit, when the Inland Revenue completed its compliance benchmarking exercise; when it began to analyse it; when he expects to receive it; and what the administrative cost was of the benchmarking exercise. [67935]

§ Dawn Primarolo
The Inland Revenue began analysing the results of compliance benchmarking exercise on Working Families' Tax Credit in February 2002 and that work is continuing. It is not possible to ascertain the specific costs of this exercise because the work was undertaken as part of routine compliance casework.

§ Mr. Clappison
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the extent of fraud in the child care element of working families tax credit; and how many(a) investigations and (b) prosecutions have been instituted into fraud in the childcare element of WFTC since 31 December 2001. [67773]

§ Dawn Primarolo
The childcare element is only one component of both Working Families' Tax Credit and Disabled Person's Tax Credits (WFTC and DPTC). During the period 1 January 2002 and 30 June 2002, 13,305 investigations of WFTC or DPTC awards were opened by the issue of the Inland Revenue's Code of208W Practice on enquiries, but it is not possible to say how many of these were in relation to childcare charges. During the period, one of the twenty-five prosecutions was instituted as a result of the falsification of childcare documentation.