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14 Apr 2003 : Column 534Wcontinued
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what circumstances a person granted (a) humanitarian protection and (b) discretionary leave to remain will be able to be joined in the UK by a spouse or dependent children. [108215]
Beverley Hughes: A spouse or dependent child will normally be allowed to join a person who has been granted limited leave under either the humanitarian protection or discretionary leave policies, only once they have been granted indefinite leave to remain, or settlement, in the United Kingdom. A person will not be eligible to apply for settlement until they have three years humanitarian protection or six years discretionary leave (more for people who are considered to be of bad character or conduct).
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy to give access to benefits to failed single asylum seekers who cannot be removed from the UK. [108218]
Beverley Hughes: It is not Government policy to give access to mainstream benefits to those failed single asylum seekers who cannot currently be removed from the United Kingdom. We have always recognised that in some cases failed asylum seekers will be unable to leave the United Kingdom immediately through no fault of their own. In such circumstances the person can apply for accommodation to be provided under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Where accommodation is provided it is on a full board basis.
Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer at what point married women who paid reduced national insurance contributions and were out of the labour market for more than two years began to be treated as full rate contributors. [109148]
Dawn Primarolo: The test described, known as the two-year test, was introduced on 6 April 1978.
Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 27 March 2003, Official Report, column 333W, to the hon. Member for Southend, West (Mr. Amess) on National Insurance, if he will place the representations in the Library; and if he will publish a document summarising the attitude of business towards the increase in National Insurance contributions. [108543]
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Dawn Primarolo: I have nothing further to add to my answer of 27 March. There are no plans to publish a document of the type requested.
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what criteria childminders must fulfil in order that their clients may claim children's tax credit. [107480]
Dawn Primarolo: The child care element of the Working Tax Credit is available for safe, secure, good quality childcare which is approved or regulated. That is why childminders must be registered with the appropriate regulating authorities. Each regulating authority decides on the criteria and standards childminders should reach before they can be registered. For England, the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) registers childminders against the National Standards for Under Eights Day Care and Childminding. In Scotland, the regulating authority is the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care. In Wales, it is the Care Standard's Inspectorate for Wales and in Northern Ireland it is the local Health and Social Services Trust.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many hon. Members are drawing the Working Families Tax Credit. [108973]
Dawn Primarolo: Working Families' Tax Credit has been replaced by the new Working and Child Tax Credits. Nine out of 10 families with children will be eligible for the Child Tax Credit.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the progress being made to ensure that all recipients who are eligible for child tax credit are able to receive it. [107289]
Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue has written directly to claimants of Working Families', Disabled Person's and children's tax credits, inviting claims for the new tax credits, and followed that with up to four reminders. Employees receiving Children's Tax Credit through their PAYE codes received a special insert with their 200304 coding notices, and there is a prominent reference to the new tax credits in the uprating letter going to all seven million Child Benefit recipients. These direct contacts are being supported by a high-profile publicity campaign on television, in the press, on radio and onlineaimed at everyone entitled to the new tax credits.
Child Tax Credit is paid directly to the person in the family mainly responsible for looking after the children. Claimants can choose to receive it weekly or 4-weekly. The first payments are being made this weekthe first week of the tax year.
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Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families with children are expected to be ineligible for the child tax credit because their earnings are too high. [107406]
Dawn Primarolo: Nine out of ten families are expected to be eligible for Child Tax Credit. Therefore it is estimated that 10 per cent. of families with children have annual household income that is too high for them to receive the Child Tax Credit.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of claimants for the new tax credits have opted for payment by girobook. [107418]
Dawn Primarolo: The new tax credits are paid either directly by the Inland Revenue, or by the employerwith wages. The Inland Revenue aims to make any direct payments of tax credits into a bank account but, where suitable banking facilities are not available, tax credits are paid by girocheque.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many allegations of improper use of the childcare tax credit have been communicated to the Inland Revenue's Childminder's hotline; and how many of these have led to (a) an investigation for fraud, (b) a penalty for fraud, (c) a successful prosecution for fraud and (d) a custodial sentence on grounds of fraud. [107419]
Dawn Primarolo: The child care element is only one component of both Working Families' Tax Credit (WFTC) and Disabled Person's Tax Credit (DPTC). An enquiry into a WFTC/DPTC award may involve more than one element of non-compliance.
The Inland Revenue have received over 2100 allegations of non-compliant applications for childcare tax credit. It is not possible to provide the additional
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many claims for the working families tax credit have (a) been identified as being appropriate for further investigation because of the possibility of fraud, (b) been investigated for fraud, (c) proved to be partially or wholly fraudulent, (d) led to a penalty because of fraud, (e) resulted in a successful prosecution for fraud and (f) led to a custodial sentence on the grounds of fraud in each year since the credit began. [107426]
Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue undertake investigations into tax credit claims where there are grounds for believing that the claim may not be compliant; non-compliance may cover a range of circumstances including error, negligence or fraud. On that basis, the information is as follows:
Note:
In relation to each category (a)(f) above, the upper line shows the figures for Working Families' Tax Credit and the lower line the figures for Disabled Pension's Tax Credit.
Awards selected for inquiry with applicant in the period
Inquiries completed in the period
Separate figures are not available for WFTC and DPTC
Penalties imposed in the period
Prosecutions completed in each period (including prosecutions of serving members of the Inland Revenue)
Custodial sentences given
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Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 5 March 2003, Official Report, column 1065W, on working families tax credit, how many families in receipt of the working families tax credit received it via their employer immediately prior to the phasing out of this option in August 2002. [107553]
Dawn Primarolo: There were 890,000 recipients of WFTC or DPTC at 26 August 2002 who had their award paid, or were due to have their award paid, via their employers.
Mr. Tynan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the average length of time taken by the Inland Revenue to process each application for (a) Children's Tax Credit and (b) Working Tax Credit has been since 1 October 2002; [107554]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 8 April 2003]: Claims for the two new tax creditsChild Tax Credit and Working Tax Creditare processed as quickly as possible. A meaningful average of the time taken to reach a decision on the claim is not available, because the new tax credits have only just been introduced. Preparations over the last few months, starting with the invitation to make claims, have been designed to support the aim of setting up awards in time for payment in April, wherever possible. Where claims are incomplete, the Inland Revenue attempts to contact claimants for the missing details. Claim forms themselves are not normally returned.
Richard Burden: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action he is taking to overcome delays in processing claims for the working tax credit and children's tax credit. [107580]
Dawn Primarolo: From 6 April 2003, the children's tax credit is replaced by child tax credit. Claims to child tax credit and working tax credit are being processed as quickly as possible, with the aim of getting awards set up in time for first payments in April. Inland Revenue began making payments this weekthe first week of the tax year.
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Norman Lamb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many applications the Inland Revenue has received for (a) child tax credit and (b) working tax credit; how many applications for (i) child tax credit and (ii) working tax credit have been determined. [108029]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 8 April 2003]: Claims for child tax credit and working tax credit are made at the same time, using one form. There is a single calculation to arrive at the amount of tax credits payable. By 9 April the Inland Revenue had received over 3.9 million claims. Claims are being processed to ensure that wherever possible a decision to pay is taken in time for payment of any tax credits in April.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many staff are involved in processing applications for Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit; and what changes to the number of staff have been made to reflect demand. [108063]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 8 April 2003]: The introduction of the Child Tax Credit and the Working Tax Credit represents a large one-off piece of work for the Inland Revenue. That work includes handling telephone inquiries and processing claims, and it involves several thousand staff. As a one-off exercise, call handling and claims processing are effectively being managed as a single stream of workallowing resources to be allocated across the two in the light of changing workload priorities. The balance between answering calls and processing claims is kept under constant review. In response to recent increased demand, resources have been switched to answering calls.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of people entitled to the (a) working tax credit and (b) child tax credit. [108064]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 8 April 2003]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) on 17 December 2002, Official Report, column 733W.
Mr. Gale: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects that the Inland Revenue will be in a position to make available to employers the information necessary to enable them to process employees' entitlement to the (a) Child Tax Credits and (b) Working Family's Tax Credits due from the start of the new financial year. [108229]
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Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 9 April 2003]: From 6 April 2003 two new tax creditsChild Tax Credit and Working Tax Creditwere introduced to succeed the existing tax credits including Working Families' Tax Credit. The Child Tax Credit and the child care element of Working Tax Credit are paid directly to the person in the family mainly responsible for looking after the children. Employers are not involved in making these payments. The Working Tax Credit is paid to employees with their wages, but decisions on entitlement are made by the Inland Revenue. The Department has already begun notifying employers of the amount of tax credits to be paid to employees entitled to Working Tax Credit.
Simon Hughes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many applications for working families tax credit were processed (a) within one month, (b) within two months, (c) within three months, (d) within six months and (e) in more than six months from the time each application was made, in each year since it was introduced; and if he will make a statement; [108827]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 11 April 2003]: The available statistics on the length of time to process applications for working families' tax credit are shown in The Board of Inland Revenue Annual Reports for each year (for 19992000, on page 100; for 200001, on page 113; for 200102 on page 124).
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer to which passported benefits recipients of the different tax credits are entitled; and what other conditions for receipt apply in each case. [108920]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 11 April 2003]: There are a wide number of other benefits that claimants may be able to access if they are getting tax credits. Eligibility for those benefits depends not only on the type of tax credit award they have and their income but also on satisfying the relevant additional entitlement criteria. Those criteria are set by the Departments responsible for the benefits in question.
To help claimants understand what they may be entitled to, the Revenue will shortly be publishing a leaflet on their website with information on the main additional benefits available and contact details to help claimants find out more about entitlement to particular benefits. I would be happy to provide a copy to the Library as soon as it is available in paper form.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many parents in Hendon are estimated to be entitled to children's tax credit; how many are claiming children's tax credit; and if he will make a statement. [109023]
Dawn Primarolo: 700,000 families with children in London are expected to receive the child tax credit.
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