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Social Security Benefits

Answer

The information requested is available only at disproportionate cost, as HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) systems do not centrally capture information on the time between a claim for tax credits or child benefit being made and it being withdrawn or rejected.Tax credits and child benefit claims might not result in payment for several reasons. For example, claimants can withdraw their claim before it is awarded, eligibility criteria might not be met or claimants might not be entitled to tax credits because their income exceeds the upper threshold. Claims might also be withdrawn or rejected by HMRC for administrative reasons.Information about child benefit and tax credits claims made by nationals from A8 countries between May 2004 and March 2009 is included in the Accession Monitoring Report published by the Home Office UK Border Agency, available at:"http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/reports/accession_monitoring_report/"Equivalent information about claimants from A2 countries is shown in the following table:

A2 Claims for child benefit—United Kingdom
Period	Claims received	Claims approved	Claims rejected	Awards terminated
2007-08	4,304	2,326	533	6
2008-09	5,340	3,231	1,229	13
Totals	9,644	5,557	1,762	19

A2 Claims for tax credits—United Kingdom
Period	Claims received	Claims approved	Claims rejected
2007-08	990	556	75
2008-09	1,263	931	134
Totals	2,253	1,487	209
Notes:
1. The tables show counts of events occurring in each period, as identified by HMRC monitoring, not the results of claims arriving in that period. If an A2 national appears in more than one claim then all his/her claims are included in this table.
2. The figures for 2007-08 include those for Quarter 1 in the calendar year 2007, to take account of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU on 1 January 2007.
3. The figures for 2008-09 are based on Quarters 2 to 4 in the calendar year 2008 and Quarter 1 in the calendar year 2009.
4. For both child benefit and tax credits, there are cases where a claim may be processed in a different month to that in which it was received and therefore the number of claims received will not total the number of approved and rejected claims. This is because once a claim is received HMRC makes further enquiries about the claimant's date of arrival in the UK and employment status, in order to ascertain whether the claimant has a right to reside.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

504 c605-6W; 308168

Session

2009-10

Subjects

EU nationals Welfare tax credits

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk