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Enquiries: Information: What is the legal basis for carrying out enquiries?
The legal authority for carrying out an enquiry is S19 of the Tax Credits Act 2002.
This allows you to enquire into a person or couples entitlement as shown in the finalised award.
You are not required to state your reasons for making the enquiry, and you should not do so in any case. You should not distinguish random enquiries from any other enquiries, as random enquiries will be carried out in the same way and with an equal degree of thoroughness as risk - based enquiries. Random enquiries are those carried out in the Error and Fraud Analysis Programme - see CCM12530.
You should therefore adopt a neutral approach when you open an enquiry - see CCM16070