Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the level of fraudulent tax free childcare claims in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

HMRC’s compliance activity for Tax-Free Childcare – which involves targeted risk campaigns plus additional exercises looking at the particulars of randomly selected parents - suggests non-compliance rates continue to remain negligible.

Whilst no formal estimates have been as yet been produced, all of HMRC’s compliance findings to date reveal no real evidence of deliberate fraud, but what mistakes have been detected relate instead to parent error.