Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the merits of requiring HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to send an automatic acknowledgement to tax credit claimants who submit their renewals online; and if he will make it HMRC policy to not suspend tax credit claims until HMRC have evidence that claimants have received and then failed to respond to their communications.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) use SMS to provide acknowledgment of receipt for all tax credit renewals where there is a valid mobile phone number held. In addition, this year HMRC offered e-mail acknowledgments to all customers submitting their renewal online through the digital service.

Only after making significant efforts to obtain a reply from the customer would HMRC seek to stop tax credit payments.