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10 Apr 2003 : Column 502—continued
6.13 pm
The Paymaster General (Dawn Primarolo): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Maryhill (Ann McKechin) on securing this Adjournment debate in what has been a busy week. It is very timely given the introduction of the new tax credits, and I hope to deal with each of the points that she has made. In particular, I thank her not only for the support that she has given personally in the House in participating in the legislation's progress through Parliament, but for being actively involved in her constituency in assisting us to get the message across about eligibility for the new tax credits.
My hon. Friend well knows that, as a result of the reforms that we have introduced—the working families tax credit and the disabled persons tax credit, linked to the national minimum wage and huge increases in child benefit—the Government have made significant progress in tackling poverty and low pay not only in Scotland, but throughout the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.
As a result of the improvements that we have made and the reforms that we have introduced, families with children in the poorest fifth of the population will be £2,500 a year better off in real terms from April 2003 compared with 1997. Our new child tax credit will be complemented by the new working tax credit, which builds on the work-based elements from the old provisions.
On my hon. Friend's comments about publicising tax credits through the workplace, I confirm that we have done all that we humanly could to encourage all employers, including local authorities, to make available information about the tax credits, particularly
the working tax credit, which will still be paid through the wage packet. On future activity on publicity, training and information for potential tax credit claimants, I reassure her that the Inland Revenue will continue its activities next year, but not at the same level, to encourage people to apply.On take-up and the numbers who have applied for the new tax credits, I should like to take this opportunity—my hon. Friend did not do so—to put straight the record with regard to others' comments about take-up of the new tax credits. We anticipate that about 5.75 million families in the United Kingdom will benefit from the child tax credit. Of those families, about 1.3 million are in receipt of income support and jobseeker's allowance. Those families do not need to claim tax credits this year. Instead, we have increased the child premium in those benefits to ensure that they receive the same amount as they would have received had they been on the tax credits, although we plan to transfer them on to the system next year.
I agree with my hon. Friend that it is important that families who are entitled to make a claim do so as soon as possible. That is why the Inland Revenue has spent £12 million on bringing the new tax credits to public attention. It wrote to everyone who was receiving the previous tax credits inviting them to claim. Indeed, it sent reminders and included messages in items such as child benefit books and bounty packs. It then attempted to ring as many potential claimants as possible to remind them to claim if they had not done so. Some members of the public became a little irritated at being contacted so many times by the Inland Revenue encouraging them to apply for credits when they had either simply not got around to doing so or had already done so. We can be absolutely sure that the message has got across. We believe that we are well on our way to achieving an excellent target. To date, we have received more than 3.9 million claims from families. As I told my hon. Friend, that does not include the 1.3 million who are on income support or JSA, who will receive the benefit automatically.
Of course, it is vital to encourage people to apply by the end of January. We started advertising last August so that we could process forms in time for claimants to receive payment by the beginning of April. As my hon. Friend said, some people unfortunately did not fill in the forms at the time and may have completed them recently. That led to huge pressure on the telephone helplines and the Members' helpline. At the beginning of the week, the number of calls to the tax credit helpline was astronomical. No contact centre in the country could have handled it—indeed, all the centres put together would have struggled. We already have 1,900 people answering calls. They are handling approximately 500,000 calls a week and, on some days, the calls exceed that number.
To deal with the extra demand this week, 150 staff were added today, 250 will be added tomorrow and 300 on Monday. A further 700 staff will be in place by early next week. Tomorrow, we shall double the capacity of calls that can be taken by the Members' helpline; we shall treble it by early next week. I understand that people are anxious, especially those who have left it late to apply, or have not received confirmation from the Inland Revenue that payments will start. The Department is doing everything that it can to provide that service to communities in the United Kingdom.
I should like to pay tribute to Inland Revenue staff. In the past three months, they have moved heaven and earth to try to ensure that all the applications for tax credit were speedily tackled. It is a huge achievement on their part that millions of people are receiving tax credits, and that will apply to millions more as we move through the month. Once we are finally in a position to give the exact information about what happened in the first month of implementation, I am confident that that splendid work will be demonstrated to all. The staff have not flinched from being asked to do increasing amounts. Thousands of Inland Revenue staff who are totally committed to introducing new tax credits have been involved.
My hon. Friend asked about future publicity and methods of ensuring take-up. She is right that it is important in the next few months to stress to people that if they do not submit their application before the beginning of July, they will lose payment for the early part of the year. So long as they submit it in time, it will be backdated. That must be our next focus. We shall redouble our efforts to issue the information through the many routes that we have used, for example, the citizens advice bureaux, which have been splendid, and the Child Poverty Action Group, which has helped through updating its advice book and undertaking the training of its staff on our behalf.
The claim forms are 12 pages long—half the length of the forms for working families tax credit, but none the less, 12 pages—because we need to get the information about the families and their structures on to our systems for the first time. Future renewals will be much easier, but we do not yet have the information and it is important to secure it. Of course, the process will continue because any new claimant will be faced with the form. As always, the Inland Revenue looks critically at the information that it sends out and the application forms that it designs, and it constantly tries to make them simpler.
I understand that some people have been caused anxiety by the question of their previous year's income because they have wondered whether to submit a P60. We do not ask for a P60; we ask for the claimant's previous year's earnings. If anyone is in doubt about what to do, they should ring the call centre, and try to do so outside peak hours. I understand that a good time to ring is while certain soaps are on the television, because most people are watching them. Alternatively, if members of the public need assistance to complete their forms but cannot get through to our call centres, they can visit or ring an Inland Revenue inquiry centre.
In conclusion, I thank my hon. Friend for her unstinting encouragement and support for the introduction of the new tax credits. I agree that we still face large challenges. We must get the information out to, and the claims in from, those who have not yet applied. We must deliver either weekly or four-weekly payments on time to families who are in desperate need of the money. The Inland Revenue is working flat out to process claims, including recent claims, to get award notices out, to deal with inquiries and to get payments in place.
I hope that my hon. Friend agrees that we have made an impressive start on a major reform. I assure her that we, too, want to ensure that the implementation of the system in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom goes smoothly and as well as possible to deliver the
important revenue to families when they need it most. The money has their name on it, and it is up to us to ensure that we get it to them.
- Adjourned accordingly at twenty-seven minutes past Six o'clock.
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