§ Dr. Goodson-WickesTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of progress on combating fraud. [14371]
§ Mr. HealdLast July, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced his five-year security strategy which gives new emphasis to the prevention and deterrence of benefit fraud while continuing to improve investigation and detection methods.
We are pleased to announce that the new initiatives which include extra checks on claims and data matching, together with traditional fraud investigation methods, have so far saved in excess of £800 million this year and we are on target to save over £1 billion by the end of the year.