§ Mr. DewarTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish figures showing, for each year since 1987(a) the total amount of cash losses due to irrecovable payments of pensions, etc., income support and family benefits recorded during the year, (b) the total amount of errors in benefit payments recorded and (c) the total savings for the year from anti-fraud initiatives.
§ Mr. Roger Evans[pursuant to his reply 16 December 1994, Official Report, col 933–36]. I am advised that Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency, is writing again to clarify his reply. I am arranging for a copy of the letter to be placed in the Library together with any additional information.
Letter from Michael Bichard to Mr. Donald Dewar, dated 4 April 1995:
I am writing to clarify the information provided to you in my letter of 16 December 1994 in response to your Parliamentary Question of 8 December in which you asked for information about benefits cash losses, errors, and savings from anti-fraud initiatives.Unfortunately, erroneous information was included in the table attached to my reply as Appendix A. The discrepancies relate to the details given on losses due to irrecoverable payments of supplementary benefit/income support for the years 1992/93 and 1993/94. I have attached a revised table giving the corrected figures.I am sorry that my reply contained erroneous information and for the fact that it has taken so long to identify this. I apologise for any confusion this may have caused.
Appendix A—corrected Losses due to irrecoverable and unrecovered overpayments of income support and family benefits Year Supplementary benefit/income support £000s Family benefits £000s 1986–87 31,987 3,234 1987–88 32,024 2,718 1988–89 41,112 3,333 1989–90 40,211 3,901 1990–91 28,608 3,417 1991–92 32,974 3,908 1992–93 46,612 4,073 1993–94 55,821 3,730 Total 309,349 28,314 Source:
1986–1991: vote 2 Supplementary benefits/income support.
1986–1991: vote 3 Family benefits. 1991–1994: vote 1 Amalgamated pension benefits/income support/family benefits.
§ Mr. DuncanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will consider issuing new guidelines to benefit offices for use when they process an application
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Table 1 Estimated cost of National Insurance benefits (£ billion at 1994–95) prices) 2000–01 2010–11 2020–21 2030–31 2040–41 2050–51 EXISTING SCHEME Retirement pensions: Basic pension 29.8 33.7 39.8 46.9 48.2 46.6 Earnings-related pension 4.2 9.2 14.5 18.7 19.5 19.3 from a 16 or 17–year-old claiming estrangement from his or her parents; [16878]
(2) what is his Department's policy of ensuring that steps are taken to contact parents if a 16 or 17-year-old claims income support claiming estrangement from his or her parents; [16880]
(3) if it is his Department's practice to require benefit offices to inform parents of the reasons given by a 16 or 17-year-old child when claiming estrangement in pursuit of a claim for income support. [16879]
§ Mr. Roger EvansWe will be issuing an amendment to the guidelines on claims for income support under the severe hardship provision. Claims to income support are confidential, but benefit offices should ask young people to provide evidence in support of their claim where they say they are estranged. Offices should make careful inquiry into the circumstances and seek to contact the parents direct if such action would be appropriate. If the young person declines to co-operate, the office should consider whether it has enough evidence on which to make a judgment as to the existence or otherwise of severe hardship.