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Treasury

Answer

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 18 December (Ref 23308), how many instances of potentially fraudulent or improper claims to tax credits have been communicated to the Inland Revenue via (a) the Benefits Anti Fraud Hotline and (b) the Childcare Tax Credit Hotline; and in each case how many of these reports have resulted in (i) the recovery of over payments, (ii) the imposition of penalties and (iii) prosecutions. [25220] Dawn Primarolo: The table shows the number of allegations about potentially improper applications for working families tax credit (WFTC) and disabled person's tax credit (DPTC), communicated to the Inland Revenue through the Benefits Anti-Fraud Hotline and the Childminder's Hotline. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Number Allegations communicated to IR via Benefits Anti-Fraud hotline{1} 16,676 WFTC/DPTC recoveries 530 WFTC/DPTC penalties 18 WFTC prosecutions 2 Allegations communicated to IR via Childminder's hotline{2} 1,672 WFTC/DPTC recoveries 4 WFTC/DPTC penalties 0 Prosecutions 0 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} 1 October 1999 to 31 December 2001 {2} April 2000 to 31 December 2001

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

25220; 379 c851W;379 c847W

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Abuse Disabled persons tax credit Fraud Fixed penalties Overpayments Prosecutions Welfare tax credits Telephone services Working families tax credit

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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