Government conceals extent of tax credit fraud

This parliamentary question was tabled this month:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much working tax credit has been overpaid due to fraudulent claims in each of the last five years.

And answer came there almost none (my emphasis):

The latest published estimates show levels of tax credits error and fraud of 8.9% in 2008-09. HMRC do not record the levels of error and fraud within working tax credit and child tax credit separately. HMRC has a target to reduce the combined levels of error and fraud to no more than 5% by the end of March 2011.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publish its error and fraud statistics on its website. The most recent information is for 2008-09 and can be found at:

www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtcredits-error0809.pdf


The Trust Statement that accompanied HMRC's 2009-10 accounts explains in more detail how the Department measures the overall level of tax credits error and fraud, published at:

www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/hmrc-accs-0910.pdf

HMRC published a joint strategy with the Department for Work and Pensions to help drive down error and fraud across the benefits and tax credits system. The publication can be found at:

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/tackling-fraud-and-error.pdf