Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of historical tax credit overpayments to be referred from HMRC to her Department for recovery through universal credit payments.

Where a person stops claiming Tax Credits and instead claims Universal Credit, DWP will take responsibility for Tax Credits debt that person has, which HMRC has not been able to recover at the point of transfer. This will enable recovery to continue through Universal Credit. As at the end of September 2018, £571m* of Tax Credits debt has transferred. This will increase as Tax Credits claimants move onto Universal Credit. DWP continues to work with HMRC and HM Treasury to better understand the make-up of the Tax Credits debt to be transferred. DWP’s 2017/18 annual accounts noted that £5.9 billion of tax credit debt will transfer across as part of the Universal Credit migration process.

* From DWP internal management information data