§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his estimate of the annual cost to public funds of social security fraud; and if he will set out in detail how he arrives at his total. [35050]
§ Mr. Roger EvansThe information is not available in the form requested.
The Department is currently undertaking a series of systematic review of the major benefits to gauge the level of incorrectness in the benefit system. We have recently published the results of the review of income support and unemployment benefit. The findings indicate that £1.4 billion a year is lost through fraudulent claims to these benefits.
1482WA copy of the report, which includes details of the methodology used, has been placed in the Library.