Concentrix

(asked on 31st October 2016) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on what proportion of tax credit claimants erroneously investigated by Concentrix were women.


Answered by
 Portrait
Jane Ellison
This question was answered on 8th November 2016

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the proportion of tax credits enquiries made by Concentrix where the claimant was a women. Nevertheless, HMRC undertook all necessary impact assessments to ensure protected groups were not disproportionately affected. As at April 2016, 88% of single claims were made by women and 88% of the single claims sent to Concentrix to check for High Risk Renewals 16 were women.

The Concentrix workload is delegated by HMRC. The process for selecting claims for Concentrix compliance interventions is set out in sections A9 and A10 of the “specifications of requirement” annex of the Concentrix contract which can be found at: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/85d1b730-5e4e-4be8-ae4c-3ac1f359afc7

Concentrix were most recently undertaking High Risk Renewals enquiries under section 18 of the Tax Credits Act 2002, under which the claimant needs to provide a declaration to show that they are entitled to receive tax credits. In these cases, the tax credits legislation places the onus on a claimant for ensuring that HMRC has the relevant information.

HMRC uses a wide range of data including third party data as part of a wider strategy to tackle tax credits error and fraud‎. HMRC has successfully reduced tax credits error and fraud from 8.1% in 2010-11 to 4.8% in 2014-15

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