Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department overpaid in working tax credit claims in the last financial year; and what the estimated cost is of recovering those overpayments.

Figures for overpayments in Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits claims in 2014-15 can be found on page 8 of the Child and Working Tax Credits, Finalised Annual Awards, Supplement on Payments National Statistics, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/525468/cwtc_awards_sup.pdf

Due to the nature of Tax Credits payments it is not possible to divide overpayments between Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits. The equivalent information for 2015-16 will be published in May 2017.

Recovering overpayments from those Tax Credit customers who continue to be in award is an automated process. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has teams to deal with cases where an overpayment is disputed or where a customer informs HMRC they are in hardship. Figures for the administrative costs for the specific aspects of this work that relate to recovering overpayments are not available.