House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 25 Jun 2007 (pt 0095)

25 Jun 2007 : Column 416W—continued

The figures for overpayments written off do not directly relate to those disputes that were received in the same month. TCO does not separately record whether an overpayment is written off in part or in full.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reasons the number of disputed tax credit payments which were written-off declined between 2005 and 2006; and if he will make a statement. [144867]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the oral evidence taken before the Treasury Committee on 14 March 2007.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether his Department’s estimates of overpaid tax credits in 2003-04 and 2004-05 include amounts paid out due to fraud and error; and if he will make a statement; [144898]

(2) what estimate he has made of the proportion of tax credit overpayments which involved some element of official error in the latest period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [144901]

Dawn Primarolo: The HMRC statistical publications on overpayment of tax credits in 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 do not include any claims identified as error (claimant or official) or fraud.

The HMRC publication “Tackling Error and Fraud in the Child and Working Tax Credits” provides an explanation on what information is included in the overpayment and Error and Fraud publications. This document is available on the HMRC website at:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/error-fraud.htm

Welfare Tax Credits: Payments

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many tax credit (a) maladministration and (b) consolatory payments were made in each month from April 2003 to June 2006. [144704]

Dawn Primarolo: The circumstances in which HM Revenue and Customs will make compensation payments to its customers are explained in the Department's fact sheet, “Complaints and Putting Things Right”, which is available at:

www.hmrc.gov.uk

The Department will pay compensation for reasonable costs incurred as a direct result of its mistakes or delays and to recognise worry and distress caused by those mistakes and delays. It does not keep separate details of
25 Jun 2007 : Column 417W
compensation payments made specifically due to “maladministration” or “poor service”.

For the number and value of compensation payments made up to 30 September 2006, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 26 October 2006, Official Report, columns 2027-28W.

Welfare Tax Credits: Personation

Mr. Evennett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many residents of Bexleyheath and Crayford had tax credits suspended due to identity theft in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07. [144113]

Dawn Primarolo: The information is not available.

Welfare Tax Credits: Publicity

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total spending on all forms of tax credit publicity and advertising was in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07; if he will list the spending on each tax credits campaign; and if he will make a statement. [145242]

Dawn Primarolo: The information is as follows:

(a) I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 31 October 2006, Official Report, column 319W.

(b) I refer the hon. Member to the reply my right hon. friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury gave to the hon. Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois) on 14 May 2007, Official Report, column 566W.

Information is not available at campaign level.

Welfare Tax Credits: Take-up

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the take-up of tax credits for those with incomes of between £10,000 and £20,000 per annum; and if he will make a statement. [145241]

Dawn Primarolo: Estimates of the take-up rate of tax credits by band of income in 2004-05, the most recent year of available data, are available in table 4 of the publication “Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit. Take-up rates. 2004-05.” This publication is available on the HMRC website at:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/takeup-rates2004-05.pdf

Welfare Tax Credits: Telephone Services

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many calls were made to the tax credits helpline in each month from April 2003 to April 2007; and how many of these calls were unanswered, broken down by reason for the call. [141492]

Dawn Primarolo: I would refer the hon. member to previous answers of 10 October 2005, Official Report, column 322W, 14 March 2006, Official Report, column 2137W, 20 June 2006, Official Report, column 1858W, and 5 June 2006, Official Report, columns 187-88W, where elements of the requested information have already been provided. Within the limits of readily available information, the following table aims to show calls received and calls engaged/busy and abandoned
25 Jun 2007 : Column 418W
for those periods not previously answered where this information has not previously been provided.

It is not possible to establish the reason for calling if a call was unanswered.

25 Jun 2007 : Column 419W

To nearest thousand
	Received^{( 1, 3)}	Abandoned^{( 2, 3)}	Engaged/busy^{( 3)}
2003
April	⁽⁴⁾—	741	⁽⁴⁾—
May	⁽⁴⁾—	320	⁽⁴⁾—
June	⁽⁴⁾—	44	⁽⁴⁾—
July	⁽⁴⁾—	86	⁽⁴⁾—
August	⁽⁴⁾—	60	⁽⁴⁾—
September	⁽⁴⁾—	63	⁽⁴⁾—
October	⁽⁴⁾—	35	⁽⁴⁾—
November	⁽⁴⁾—	56	⁽⁴⁾—
December	⁽⁴⁾—	24	⁽⁴⁾—

2004
January	⁽⁴⁾—	25	⁽⁴⁾—
February	⁽⁴⁾—	21	⁽⁴⁾—
March	⁽⁴⁾—	22	⁽⁴⁾—
April	⁽⁴⁾—	44	⁽⁴⁾—
May	⁽⁴⁾—	37	⁽⁴⁾—
June	⁽⁴⁾—	34	⁽⁴⁾—
July	⁽⁴⁾—	41	⁽⁴⁾—
August	⁽⁴⁾—	23	⁽⁴⁾—
September	⁽⁴⁾—	153	⁽⁴⁾—
October	⁽⁴⁾—	25	⁽⁴⁾—
November	⁽⁴⁾—	22	⁽⁴⁾—
December	⁽⁴⁾—	32	⁽⁴⁾—

2005
January	^{(4, 5)}—	67	^{(4, 5)}—
February	^{(4, 5)}—	58	^{(4, 5)}—
March	^{(4, 5)}—	50	^{(4, 5)}—
April	^{(4, 5)}—	120	^{(4, 5)}—
May	^{(4, 5)}—	111	^{(4, 5)}—
June	^{(4, 5)}—	122	^{(4, 5)}—
July	⁽⁵⁾—	94	⁽⁵⁾—
August	⁽⁵⁾—	184	⁽⁵⁾—
September	⁽⁵⁾—	272	⁽⁵⁾—
October	⁽⁵⁾—	67	⁽⁵⁾—
November	⁽⁵⁾—	65	⁽⁵⁾—
December	^{(5, 6)}—	35	⁽⁵⁾—

2006
January	^{(5, 6)}—	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁵⁾—
February	⁽⁶⁾—	⁽⁷⁾—	123
March	⁽⁶⁾—	⁽⁷⁾—	26
April	⁽⁶⁾—	⁽⁷⁾—	78
May	⁽⁶⁾—	72	413
June	2,288	64	452
July	2,225	39	162
August	2,712	45	273
September	2,095	22	90
October	1,764	12	17
November	1,919	24	58
December	1,176	8	38

2007
January	1,775	16	157
February	1,843	14	43
March	1,735	12	44
April	1,906	30	165
⁽¹⁾ Where the caller selected an option from the call steering menu and was put in a queue to speak to an adviser. ⁽²⁾ Where the caller selected an option from the call steering menu and was put in a queue to speak to an adviser but the call was terminated before the caller spoke to an adviser. ⁽³⁾ Prior to December 2005, figures refer to tax credits GB as Northern Ireland had a separate tax credit helpline, which was not part of the overall HMRC contact centre network. The figures from December 2005, include Northern Ireland. ⁽⁴⁾ Detail provided previously, 10 October 2005, Official Report, column 322W. ⁽⁵⁾ Detail provided previously, 14 March 2006, Official Report, column 2137W. ⁽⁶⁾ Detail provided previously, 20 June 2006, Official Report, column 1858W. ⁽⁷⁾ Detail provided previously, 5 June 2006, Official Report, columns 187-88W.

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