§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will make a statement as to the scale of the use of bogus national insurance numbers in the claiming of benefits. [46411]
621W
§ Mr. FieldNational Insurance numbers play a key role in identifying individual accounts held on DSS and Inland Revenue systems.
Under the previous Administration, the Social Security Select Committee identified a number of concerns about the security of national insurance numbers. The Government are now taking action to improve the security of the way numbers are issued and maintained.
This work is at an early stage, and will provide us with the best assessment of the scale of the use of bogus numbers in the claiming of benefit.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is her estimate of the total number of national insurance numbers in circulation. [46412]
§ Mr. FieldThere are 79 million accounts on the Department's central register (including 11 million accounts in respect of children for whom child benefit is in payment and who are due to be issued with a national insurance number shortly before they reach the age of 16).
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is her assessment of the reliability of the national insurance database. [46413]
§ Mr. FieldNational Insurance numbers play a key role in identifying individual accounts held on DSS and Inland Revenue systems.
Under the previous Administration, the Social Security Select Committee identified a number of concerns about the security of national insurance numbers. The Government are now taking action to improve the security of the way numbers are issued and maintained. This work is at an early stage, and will provide us with the best assessment of the reliability of the national insurance database.
We cannot, at this stage, provide the assessment requested.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is her estimate of the number of birth certificates of dead people being fraudulently used for national insurance purposes. [46414]
§ Mr. FieldThe Government have not estimated the number of birth certificates of dead people being used fraudulently for national insurance purposes. The Government are taking action to improve the security of the way numbers are issued and maintained. This work is at an early stage, and the initial results will determine the action necessary to tighten up the security of national insurance numbers, including action specifically surrounding the use of birth certificates.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is her estimate of the number of persons who are fraudulently claiming benefits where the national insurance number in use has formerly been used by a person who has left the United Kingdom. [46416]
§ Mr. FieldThe Government have not yet estimated the number of persons who are fraudulently claiming benefits where the national insurance number in use has formerly been used by a person who has left the United Kingdom.
622WThe Government are taking action to improve the security of the way numbers are issued and maintained. This work is at an early stage, and the initial results will determine the action necessary to tighten up the security of national insurance numbers, including action specifically surrounding the use of numbers formerly used by persons who have left the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is her estimate of the number of persons who have acquired national insurance numbers illegally with the complicity of a member of her Department's staff in the last two years. [46417]
§ Mr. FieldThe Government do not yet have an estimate of the number of persons who have acquired national insurance numbers illegally with the complicity of a member of the Department's staff.
The Government are taking action to improve the security of the way numbers are issued and maintained. This work is at an early stage, and the initial results will determine the action necessary to tighten up the security of national insurance numbers, including action specifically surrounding numbers illegally obtained with the complicity of Departmental staff.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many numbers have been removed from the national insurance database in each of the last 48 months. [46419]
§ Mr. FieldThe information is set out in the table.
Numbers of National Insurance numbers which have been removed from the database since the start of the cleansing programme Month Duplicate accounts removed November 1995 150 December 1995 154 January 1996 297 February 1996 563 March 1996 766 April 1996 1,166 May 1996 1,277 June 1996 1,051 July 1996 2,309 August 1996 1,980 September 1996 3,844 October 1996 4,664 November 1996 3,550 December 1996 2,118 January 1997 4,580 February 1997 4,106 March 1997 4,112 April 1997 4,167 May 1997 2,739 June 1997 3,621 July 1997 4,593 August 1997 3,965 September 1997 4,200 October 1997 590 November 1997 658 December 1997 432 January 1998 1,017 February 1998 817 March 1998 416 April 1998 154 May 1998 315 June 1998 168 Total 64,539