§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Paymaster General if he will estimate the sum of money saved as a result of the visit to Hove unemployment benefit office of his Department's 350W regional fraud team between 30 June 1986 and 15 August 1986, for each week of the team's visit, the numbers of claimants directly and indirectly affected by the visit, the number of home visits and office visits by week, and the cost to his Department of staffing, transport, accommodation and expenses for the regional fraud team between those dates.
§ Mr. LeeDetails of the weekly amount of public money saved and the number of claimants who were interviewed at their home or in the unemployment benefit office at Hove during the regional fraud team exercise are only available at disproportionate cost. Information about the numbers of claimants indirectly affected by the visit is not available as there is no way to determine why some claimants cease to sign. However, I can confirm that 359 people had their claims to benefit investigated during the exercise and 76 claimants subsequently withdrew their claims. The savings resulting from the exercise at Hove amounted to £79,249.94 and the total cost of the exercise was £11,450.46—ie, a net saving of £67,799.48.
§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Paymaster General if he will provide details of his Department's evaluation and value for money studies of the activities of regional fraud teams and show their effectiveness region by region.
§ Mr. LeeThe work of regional fraud teams is monitored in detail including their cost effectiveness in achieving benefit savings. The following figures show the net benefit savings of regional fraud teams for the six months between 1.4.86 and 30.9.86, having taken into account the costs incurred in regional fraud team work.
Region Net Benefit Savings £ Northern 246,679 Yorks and Humberside 393,260 Eastern 900,173 Southern 1,495,809 South West 916,804 Wales 643,559 Midlands 1,016,761 North West 242,061 Scotland 313,565
§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Paymaster General if he will detail the number of claimants who have left the unemployment register voluntarily in each region as a result of the regional fraud teams investigations; and if he will provide details of the number of claimants who left the register who subsequently re-registered within (a) one month, (b) two months, (c) three months, (d) four months and (e) five months.
§ Mr. LeeThe following figures show how many claimants withdrew their benefit claims voluntarily as a result of regional fraud teams' investigations, for the six months between 1 April 1986 and 30 September 1986. There are no figures available to show the number of claimants who subsequently re-registered.
351W
Number of Claims Withdrawn Regions Number Northern 344 Yorks and Humberside 521 Eastern 1,102
Regions Number Southern 1,721 South West 1,185 Wales 1,003 Midlands 1,286 North West 470 Scotland 427