Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, (a) what the current average processing time is for HMRC overpayment relief claims; and (b) what steps her Department are taking to reduce times in processing those claims.

HMRC recognises that payments to customers are important, therefore claims are processed as priority post. HMRC aims to process 80% of priority post received within 15 working days.

Customer correspondence performance is reported monthly and quarterly through HMRC’s published performance updates at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates.

HMRC continues to invest in automation and to review their internal processes to ensure overpayments relief claims are issued in a timely manner.