Tax Credits Act 2002 section 36C

Loss of working tax credit for repeated benefit fraud

Section 36C imposes escalating sanctions on repeat benefit fraudsters by removing their entitlement to working tax credit for a disqualification period that increases with each successive offence.

• A person convicted of a benefit offence who has a previous disqualifying event within the last five years loses their working tax credit for a disqualification period of 26 weeks, or three years if there is a further prior disqualifying event within the five years before the earlier one
• For single claims, working tax credit is not payable to the offender during the disqualification period; for joint claims, neither the offender nor their partner receives it, although regulations may allow a reduced payment for joint claims
• The restriction does not apply if any of the offences in the current proceedings is a "relevant offence" (as defined in the Social Security Fraud Act 2001), which is subject to separate, more severe sanctions
• The Treasury may change the disqualification periods by order and may set different periods depending on the type of earlier disqualifying event