Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-10-20.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of tax credits referred to Concentrix by HM Revenue and Customs as high risk renewals were streamed out by Concentrix from further investigation for fraud or error.

Jane Ellison

Between 1 August 2016 and 31 August 2016 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) automatically stopped 365,483 tax credit claims as a direct result of customers failing to comply with the requirements of the annual renewal process.

Alongside the annual renewal process, HMRC records the number of awards that have been amended, which could be stopped, reduced or increased. Therefore, data showing the total number of claims stopped following a compliance intervention is unavailable.

During the course of the contract, HMRC delegated a total caseload of 2,209,500 cases for high risk renewal checks by Concentrix. Of these 1,635,676 cases were not the subject of further investigation for fraud or error by Concentrix. This amounts to 74% of the total caseload.

The volume of high risk renewals referred to Concentrix are broken down into the three risk categories as follows:

• Undeclared Partner: 1,398,908

• Work & Hours: 564,983

• Child Care: 245,609