Written question asked by Gordon Prentice (Labour) on Monday, 22 March 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 24 March 2010. It was answered by Stephen Timms (Labour) on Tuesday, 30 March 2010 on behalf of the Treasury.

Welfare Tax Credits

Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many checks his Department carried out on (a) expenditure on (i) food and (ii) childcare by and (b) bank statements from more than six months previously of recipients of tax credits in each year since 2005; what criteria are used to decide to carry out such checks; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: The information is not available. For information relating to HM Revenue and Customs compliance checks on tax credits awards I refer the hon. Member to the information published in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 Comptroller and Auditor General's standard reports.Information for years up to and including 2007-08 can be found in table 6 on page R15 of the 2007-08 report published at:"www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/hmrc-dep-acct0708.pdf"Similar information for 2008-09 is included in table 33 on page R41 of the Standard Report published at:"www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/hmrc-accs-0809.pdf"Providing further information about the criteria used to carry out such checks might assist those attempting to defraud the system.

Secondary information