To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many award notices for the (a) child tax credit and (b) working tax credit have been issued. [108480]

There is a single award notice for both child tax credit and working tax credit.By 9 April 2003, about 3.2 million award notices had been issued. This includes notices issued to single adults and to each partner in couples.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the targets for processing (a) child and (b) working tax credit claim forms and the performance against those targets. [108483]

The Inland Revenue will be set targets for the future administration of the new tax credits system later this year once there is sufficient experience of live running to make those targets both challenging and achievable.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many calls have been made to the tax credit helpline in each month since it was established. [106142]

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many telephone calls the Inland Revenue Children's and Working Tax Credits helpline dealt with in (a) February and (b) March 2003. [107556]

[holding answer 1 April 2003]: A helpline was set up in August 2002 to handle detailed inquiries about the two new tax credits. The number of calls answered at the helpline in Great Britain in each month since then is set out in the following table.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many phone calls the Child Tax Credit helpline has received over the last month. [107290]

The latest month for which complete information is available is March 2003. The Great Britain tax credit helpline answered 2,486,846 calls in this month.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many awards for the (a) child tax credit and (b) working tax credit have been paid in Northern Ireland. [110366]

I refer the hon. Member to my answer to the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts) on 19 March 2003, Official Report, column 760W.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the targets for processing child and working tax credit claim forms and the performance against those targets for Northern Ireland in the latest year for which figures are available. [110367]

The Inland Revenue will be set targets for the future administration of the new tax credits system later this year once there is sufficient experience of live running to make those targets both challenging and achievable.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families in Northern Ireland (a) were entitled to and (b) received the children's tax credit in the last year for which figures are available. [110368]

Based on household survey data, it is estimated that about 125,000 families in Northern Ireland could benefit from the children's tax credit.No estimate can be made of the number of families in Northern Ireland actually benefiting from the children's tax credit for 2001–02 until the Survey of Personal Incomes is compiled towards the end of this year.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many applications were (a) made, (b) outstanding, (c) approved and (d) refused in each of the last six months for the working families tax credit; and what the cumulative backlog in applications was at 31 March. [108795]

[holding answer 14 April 2003]: The figures requested are: