Clause 33 - Offence of fraud
Tax Credits Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Mark Hoban (Fareham, Conservative)
My hon. Friend is making an important point, but I want to draw him back to the numbers in the written answer from the Paymaster General. There were 8,800 cases in which recoveries were made because of the overpayment of tax credits. I should think that many of those involved the offences that the hon. Lady mentioned, such as the impersonation of Inland Revenue officers or the provision of false or forged documentation. However, less than one quarter of 1 per cent. of such cases led to a prosecution. Surely, that indicates that prosecutions are not being pursued vigorously and the Government do not take the matter as seriously as they should.