§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many letters, phone calls and direct contacts he has received from(a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public on the action to be taken in the case of overpayment of tax credits. [142256]
§ Dawn PrimaroloThe records kept of written correspondence, calls received and direct contacts are not classified in a way that permits the extraction of these numbers.
§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many claims for interim payments relating to child and working tax credit claimants have been made in each month since the tax credits were introduced; how many payments have been made; and if he will estimate the(a) average and (b) total value of these payments. [143077]
§ Dawn PrimaroloThe number of individual same day interim payments made through local offices to claimants of child and working tax credits in each month is shown in the following table. Also shown is the number of automatic direct payments made centrally to tax credit claimants in each month.
2003 Number of same day interim payments made
through local office
Number of automatic direct
payments (million)
April 25,000 8.5 May 175,000 9 June 75,000 9.5 July 25,000 11.5 August 10,000 10.5 September 8,000 11 October 6,000 11.5 November 6,000 11 Notes:
1. The numbers of interim payments to July are rounded to the nearest 25,000, and for later months to the nearest thousand. The numbers of automatic direct payments are rounded to the nearest 0.5 million.
2. No figures are available for the number of claims for interim payments that have been refused.
495WIt is estimated that in excess of £100 million tax credits were paid out by the end of November using the interim payments system.