HC Deb 18 May 2004 vol 421 cc890-1W
Mr. Webb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many child and working tax credit appeals against awards have been(a) lodged and (b) heard; and how many of the appeals were found in (i) favour of the appellant and (ii) against the appellant in each of the last 12 months; [172949]

(2) what the average waiting time was from receipt of the appeal, for a child and working tax credit appeal to be heard, in each of the last 12 months. [172950]

Dawn Primarolo

Up to the end of April 2004 Inland Revenue submitted to the Appeals Service about 1,300 written appeals against tax credit decisions.

I understand from the Appeals Service that about 265 appeals had been heard by a tribunal by the end of March 2003. Others appeals were settled without a tribunal hearing, were withdrawn, struck out, not accepted as duly made or were outstanding.

The number of appeals heard by tribunals in each month to March 2004 are as follows:

Month Number of appeals heard by tribunals1
June 2003 5
July 2003 15
August 2003 15
September 2003 15
October 2003 15

Month Number of appeals heard by tribunals1
November 2003 15
December 2003 15
January 2004 35
February 2004 60
March 2004 75
Total to March 2004 265
1 Rounded to the nearest 5 cases.

About 10 of these cases were found in favour of the appellant.

For cases going to tribunal hearing, the estimated average time between submission to the Appeals Service and the hearing is about 11 weeks.

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