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Taxation: Overpayments

Asked by Dave DooganScottish National PartyTreasuryTabled Answered 23 March 2026UIN 121396

The question

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 9 March 2026 to Question 116959 on Taxation: Overpayments, if she will publish the average processing time for HMRC overpayment relief claims in each of the last 12 months.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson

HMRC does not produce an overall average processing time for overpayment relief claims. Processing times vary depending on the type of claim and the checks required to protect public funds.

However, HMRC recognises that payments to customers are important, therefore claims are processed as priority post. HMRC aims to process 80% of priority post received within 15 working days.

Customer correspondence performance is reported monthly and quarterly through HMRC’s published performance updates at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates

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