Tax credit over and underpayments are established after renewal at finalisation. Information relating to overpayments is therefore accounted for on a tax year basis.
Information on the number of awards with an overpayment of tax credits, including value, in 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 is produced in the HMRC publications “Child and Working Tax Credits Statistics. Finalised Annual Awards. Supplement on Payments In.” for each relevant year. These publications are available on the HMRC website at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtc-quarterly-stats.htm
The amount of tax credit overpayments written off up to 5 April 2007 and the cost of managing and paying child and working tax credits are shown in note 8.2 and 3 of the Trust Statement to the HM Revenue and Customs Accounts for 2005-06 and 2006-07. These reports are available at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/reports.htm
(2) how many TC846 forms have been received by HM Revenue and Customs in each year since 2003;
(3) how many tax credit overpayment cases were reviewed at the request of the recipient in each quarter since April 2003; and what proportion of these reviews led to (a) some and (b) all of the overpayment being written off;
(4) how many times the Tax Credit Office wrote off an overpayment in each year since 2003 because (a) of official error where it was reasonable for the recipient to think the award was correct and (b) it would have caused hardship to have recovered (i) all and (ii) part of the overpayment.
Customers can ask HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to reconsider a decision to ask them to repay their overpaid tax credits by writing to the Department or by completing a form (TC846) that is provided for that purpose. HMRC do not separately count the number of requests made specifically using the TC846.
Overpayments were only identified after April 2004 when HMRC started finalising awards for 2003-04. The Department began considering disputed overpayments in June 2004.
For the numbers of disputes received and written off either in part or in full up to and including August 2006, I refer the hon. Member to the answer my predecessor gave him on 10 October 2006, Official Report, column 736W. Figures for each quarter ended 30 September 2006 to 31 December 2007 inclusive are shown as follows:
Quarter ending Number of disputes received (around) 30 September 2006 96,000 31 December 2006 82,500 31 March 2007 61,000 30 June 2007 43,000 30 September 2007 46,000 31 December 2007 62,000
Quarter ending Number written off either in whole or in part (around) 30 September 2006 2,800 31 December 2006 2,400 31 March 2007 1,550 30 June 2007 1,300 30 September 2007 700 31 December 2007 1,800 Note: The figures for overpayments written off do not directly relate to those disputes that were received in the same period. TCO does not separately record whether an overpayment is written off in part or in full.
For the most recent information about the number of overpayments written off in cases of hardship, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) on 13 December 2007, Official Report, column 825W.