§ 3. Mr. Ian BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the latest figures for social security fraud prevention.
§ The Secretary of State for Social Security (Mr. Peter Lilley)In 1993–94, a record £654 million of social security fraud was stopped by the Benefits Agency. In November, I announced an investment of £300 million over the next three years in measures designed to shift dramatically the emphasis of fraud work from detection and investigation towards prevention and deterrence. These measures will include more home visiting, improved information technology and automated payment of benefits at post offices. They are expected to save an additional £2.5 billion over the same period.
§ Mr. BruceI thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. Can he confirm that fraud prevention has increased by 17 per cent. this year? Can he give the House an assurance that officers in the Department of Social Security will make a special effort to check on people who have fraudulently claimed that they are asylum seekers and who have claimed many times? Clearly, although people in this country are only too happy to help genuine asylum seekers and their own citizens who have fallen on hard times, they will not stand for people flooding in to defraud our system.
§ Mr. LilleyI can confirm, as my hon. Friend asks, the substantial rise in success in stopping fraud and thereby saving money for the taxpayer. We have made abuse of asylum applications much more difficult by introducing arrangements with the Home Office and by ensuring that the benefit is obtainable only from a single post office. Those measures have sharply reduced multiple applications and fraudulent abuse.
§ Mr. Frank FieldHow do the Government answer the charge that they are soft on fraud and soft on causes? Is the Secretary of State aware that it is not just a matter of claimant fraud, with which all of us disagree, but a matter of the Department being open to fraud from gang warfare? Is he aware that there is massive landlord fraud in housing benefit and that the Department is now under attack from some of its own officers who open up bogus claims? Once a claim is opened up in the Department, how often is it audited?
§ Mr. LilleyI assure the hon. Gentleman that the Government are not soft on fraud. I welcome the consistent support that he has given us on measures to crack down on fraud. Housing benefit is, of course, handled on behalf of the Government by local authorities. We have given them an increased incentive, both carrot and stick, to ensure that they eliminate wherever possible abuse of the housing benefit bill by landlords and tenants. It is absolutely right that they should do so and I urge every local authority to respond positively to the incentives that we have put in place.
§ Mr. ButcherWill my right hon. Friend persist in the examination of housing benefit fraud? He will know that 5 some time ago I advised his Department of strong evidence showing that housing benefit was being claimed from more than 6,000 empty properties in Birmingham—the so-called giro drop scandal. My fear is that his officials may see the fraud as an affront to their professional competence rather than as something to be vigorously pursued. May I urge him to redouble his efforts with local authorities to investigate that matter?
§ Mr. LilleyI will again follow up my hon. Friend's point. I assure him that there is no question of officials taking such fraud as an affront to their personal efficacy, since they are not, as I explained to the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field), directly responsible for it. They have ensured that incentives are given to local authorities to pursue housing benefit fraud. It is a scandal when local authorities do not pursue it, because they are letting down the taxpayer and the council tax payer.