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PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Welfare Tax Credits: Self-employed (25 June 2014)

Question Asked

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many self-employed people claimed (a) child tax credits and (b) working tax credits in each of the last 10 years.

Asked by:
Sir Stephen Timms (Labour)

Answer

The following table is based on finalised tax credits administrative data for each financial year. The latest data available are 2012-13.

Thousands

Tax Year

Number of families in receipt of tax credits containing at least one member identified as self-employed

Families benefitting from both WTC and CTC

Families benefitting from WTC Only

2007-08

740

80

2008-09

760

100

2009-10

780

130

2010-11

800

150

2011-12

750

160

2012-13

600

169

Data from earlier years is only available at disproportionate cost.

The decrease in the number of self employed households in 2012-13 can largely be explained by the removal of the ‘Second Income Threshold’ of tax credits in April 2012. This policy change removed a large number of higher income households from the whole tax credits population.

In general, there is and has been a long term trend of growth in the number of self employed people.


Answered by:
Mr David Gauke (Independent)
3 July 2014

Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.