Business: Government Assistance Lorely Burt To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many businesses have had an application for assistance from the business payment support service declined in each month since the scheme was introduced. Mr. Timms The business payment support service was introduced on 24 November 2008. To 27 September 2009 6,119 requests for time to pay tax due have not been agreed by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), representing 1.9 per cent. of the total requests received. Some businesses will have submitted more than one request. The following table provides the monthly breakdown. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Period |Requests not agreed| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |24 November 2008 - 1 March 20091 |1230 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2 March 2009 - 29 March 2009 |414 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |30 March 2009 - 3 May 2009 |522 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |4 May 2009 - 31 May 2009 |407 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |1 June 2009 - 28 June 2009 |473 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |29 June 2009 - 26 July 20092 |2263 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |27 July 2009 - 30 August 2009 |422 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |31 August 2009 - 27 September 2009 |388 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Total |6119 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Notes:1 Disaggregated figures are not available prior to 2 March 2009.2 Validation work in July 2009 led to the data capture of requests for time to pay agreements that had been processed but not previously entered on HM Revenue and Customs’ management information systems.| | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------