An error and fraud statistics report on child and working tax creditswas placed in the House of Commons library last week.
It showed that 260,000 claimants benefited from error and fraud relatingto the childcare element of the working tax credit in 2007/08, whichamounted to a sum of 315m. In 2006/07, the figure was 320m.
In a statement in the House of Commons, financial secretary to theTreasury Stephen Timms said the government had already introducedadditional checks to prevent error and detect abuse. But he added: "HMRevenue and Customs will use the analysis published today to refine itsstrategy."
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day NurseriesAssociation, said the figures underlined the need for the system to bereconfigured. "These figures do illustrate the benefits of directpayments to providers of tax credits," she said. "Not only would thiseliminate fraudulent claims, it would also help vulnerable families whocould be confident of taking up their entitlement."
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