Written question asked by David Chaytor (Labour) on Tuesday, 24 November 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 November 2009. It was answered by Stephen Timms (Labour) on Tuesday, 1 December 2009 on behalf of the Treasury.

Child Benefit

Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what proportion of applications for child benefit were completed within (a) four, (b) eight and (c) 12 weeks in each of the last three years;

Answer: The information requested is not available.For information on the time taken to pay new child benefit claims in 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09, I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave to:"the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland (Dr. Kumar) on 2 February 2009, Official Report, column 894W;""the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) on 22 October 2008, Official Report, column 356W; and""the hon. Member for Glasgow, East (John Mason) on 27 April 2009, Official Report, columns 1046-47W."HM Revenue and Customs aims to pay 66 per cent. of new child benefit claims in nine working days in 2009-10 and all claims in an average of 20 calendar days.

Secondary information