Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of people who were not receiving tax credits on 2 March 2021 but who have subsequently had their claims backdated to include that date, for what reasons those payments were backdated; and how many of those backdated claimants qualified for the £500 tax credit payments.

While the COVID-19 support scheme for working households receiving tax credits uses tax credits as a proxy for eligibility it is separate and legally distinct from tax credits. Eligibility for the one-off payment is determined solely by a claimant’s tax credits award as it appeared on 2 March 2021.

The specific information requested is not currently available due to the nature of tax credits. Tax credits awards are provisional until the annual finalisation and renewals process takes place. The 2020-21 renewals process needs to be completed and the data from that exercise analysed before an estimate could be made. This is expected some time in the first half of 2022.