§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the number of claimants thought to be committing fraud together with the results of prosecutions in 1950, 1960, 1970 and each subsequent year.
§ Mr. O'MalleyThe information is not available for the years 1950 and 1960. Numbers of cases of fraud detected in the years 1970 to 1974, and numbers of prosecutions in the same years were:
Cases of fraud detected: 1970 37,150 1971 38,700 1972 42,650 1973 39,800 1974 39,800 Prosecutions: 1970 7,700 1971 9,650 1972 12,200 1973 11,900 1974 13,700 Convictions were obtained in about 98 per cent. of all cases prosecuted.
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the number of claimants found to have undisclosed capital on their death in 1950, 1960, 1970 and each subsequent year; and if she will give the total amount involved and the average per claimant.
§ Mr. O'MalleyThe arrangements for inquiry into estates of deceased claimants began in 1959. In many cases where a claimant had not disclosed capital in his lifetime there was, nevertheless, no overpayment. Records are kept of the amounts overpaid and the number of claimants involved, and the information is given below.
Financial year Total of over-payments Number of claimants Average overpayment per claimant £ £ 1960–61 252,216* 2,411 104* 1970–71 543,583 3,059 177 1971–72 682,791 3,582 190 1972–73 728,072 3,623 201 1973–74 890,935 4,056 220 1974–75 1,011,037 3,838 263 * Amount recovered, which may have differed slightly from the total of overpayments (not recorded for 1960–61).
§ Mr. Tierneyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many cases of suspected social security abuse 838W were investigated in the area covered by the Washwood Heath and Sheldon offices of the Department of Health and Social Security;
(2) how many employees full-time and part-time are occupied investigating social security abuses in the area covered by the Washwood Heath and Sheldon offices of the Department of Health and Social Security;
(3) how many prosecutions have been brought against individuals alleged to have committed social security abuses in the area covered by the Washwood Heath and Sheldon offices of the Department of Health and Social Security;
(4) how many cases of social security abuses were discovered in the area covered by the Washwood Heath and Sheldon offices of the Department of Health and Social Security.
§ Mr. O'MalleyFraud investigation is carried out partly by local office staff and partly by investigators based at regional offices, and statistics are not maintained for individual offices. The total number of full-time and part-time officers engaged on this work in the West Midlands Region in 1974 is estimated to be the equivalent of 55 full-time staff. No record is kept of the total number of cases of suspected abuse investigated.
Without undue expenditure of official time, it is not ordinarily possible to derive, from our records, figures showing the number of cases in which prosecutions were brought against individuals in the area covered by a particular local office But a special count has shown that in the areas covered by the two offices mentioned by my hon. Friend the number of cases of fraud authorised for prosecution was 55 and 24 respectively. The number of cases of fraud discovered could not be identified without disproportionate further work. The regional statistics show that in the West Midlands Region in 1974 some 2,074 cases of fraud were established of which 663 were authorised for prosecution.