Benefits (Hansard, 20 January 1988)

§ Mr. Wigley
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the total value of unentitled benefits claims discovered and recouped by his Department in each year since 1979.

§ Mr. Lee
My Department's fraud investigation work was reorganised in 1984 and comparable figures for earlier years are not available.
The estimated value of benefit saved by fraud investigation work in the Department for each year is as follows:

£ million gross

1984–85 19.2

1985–86 33.8

1986–87 54.9

§ Mr. Wigley
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the percentage change in the value of unentitled benefits recouped per Department of Employment investigating officer since(a) 1979 and (b) since 1984.

§ Mr. Lee
My Department's fraud investigation work was recognised in 1984 and comparable figures for earlier years are not available. There has been a 67.5 per cent. increase in the estimated value of benefit saved per fraud investigator between 1984 and 1987.

§ Mr. Wigley
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the average change in the value of unentitled benefits recouped per Department of Employment investigating officer in each year since 1984.

§ Mr. Lee
The estimated value of benefit saved per fraud investigator in each year since 1984–85 is as follows:
729W

Year £

1984–85 49,450

1985–86 73,015

1986–87 82,860

§ Mr. Wigley
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is his estimate of the ratio of current costs of his Department's investigation into fraud to the benefits recouped; and what are the figures for each year since 1984.

§ Mr. Lee
The ratios between costs and estimated benefit saved are as follows:

ratio

1984–85 1:2.4

1985–86 1:2.9

1986–87 1:3.7

¹1987–88 1:4.4

¹ First half year.

	ratio
1984–85	1:2.4
1985–86	1:2.9
1986–87	1:3.7
¹1987–88	1:4.4
¹ First half year.