§ Mr. Thomas Coxasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the known number of fraudulent claims made for social security benefits in the Greater London area for each of the last three years.
§ Mr. DeanSeparate statistics are not kept for the Greater London area, and the information is not available in the form asked for. The estimated number of claims for social security benefits which appeared in the Department to have been made with fraudulent intent in the area covered by the three London regions of the Department is given below for each of the last three years. This area includes the counties of Oxford, Berks, Bucks, Beds, Herts, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Hants as well as the Greater London area.
The net decrease in the figure for 1970 is mainly due to a reduction in the number of persons found to be moving from office to office and making apparently fraudulent claims for supplementary benefit. This coincided with the introduction of the use of Giro orders sent by post for immediate payments instead of cash at local offices.
1968 1969 1970 (provisional) 8,150 8,350 7,550