Official Statistics

Child and Working Tax Credits error and fraud statistics 2016 to 2017

This report presents the latest findings from the 2016 to 2017 Error and Fraud Analytical Programme, which measures error and fraud in the tax credits system.

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Child and Working Tax Credits Error and Fraud Statistics 2016 to 2017 (updated)

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This report presents the latest findings from the 2016 to 2017 Error and Fraud Analytical Programme, which measures error and fraud in the tax credits system.

Estimates for 2016 to 2017 have been revised and were re-published on 11 April 2019. This is in line with our published revisions policy of releasing revised statistics if additional information on the cases sampled leads to a change of 0.2 percentage points or more in the rate of error and fraud.

For 2016 to 2017, the revised central estimate of the rate of error and fraud favouring the customer is around 4.7%, revised down from 4.9% published in June 2018. This equates to around £1.27 billion paid out incorrectly through error and fraud, revised down from around £1.32 billion. These are downward revisions of 0.2 percentage points and £50 million respectively.

Published 21 June 2018
Last updated 11 April 2019 + show all updates
  1. These statistics have been revised due to additional information on sampled cases being made available, resulting in a change of at least 0.2 percentage points in the rate of error and fraud. This is in line with our published revisions policy of releasing revised statistics.

  2. First published.