Automated Credit Transfer

HC Deb 01 February 2000 vol 343 cc551-2W

Mr. Webb

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many benefit recipients have been paid twice as a result of recent errors in the automatic credit transfer system; how much was overpaid; what was the cost of the steps taken to recover the overpayment; how much has so far been repaid; and if he will make a statement. [107636]

Angela Eagle

The administration of benefit payments is a matter for Mr. Peter Mathison, the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. Steve Webb, dated 31 January 2000: The Secretary of State has asked Peter Mathison to respond to your recent question asking how many benefit recipients have been paid twice as a result of recent errors in the automatic credit transfer system; how much was overpaid, what was the cost of the steps taken to recover the overpayment; how much has so far been repaid; and if he will make a statement. As he is unavailable due to annual leave I am replying. A computer processing problem resulted in a batch of Income Support payments paid by Automated Credit Transfer being duplicated. 112,000 Income Support customers received duplicate payments amounting to £10.5m. The payments were made into customers' bank accounts on 18 January. The duplicate payments made represent a very small proportion of the total number of Income Support payments the Agency makes each year. Our aim is to protect the public purse and seek recovery when able to do so. Steps have been taken to account separately for the recovery of these duplicate payments and the Benefits Agency's Central Recovery Group (CRG) were asked to co-ordinate the recovery. Customers were notified of the problem by letter on 24 January and given details of how to repay the duplicate payment. Letter were issued to 109,663 customers. Letters were not issued where we had been informed the customer has since died or where the amount paid was less than £5. The Central Recovery Group has set up dedicated phone lines to receive phone calls from customers who needed to speak to somebody about how to pay the money back. Customers can also contact their local benefit offices for advise and guidance. Although customers have been asked to make repayment to the Central Recovery Group, customers may chose to make repayment at their local office. Although no specific information has yet been collected, Central Recovery Group estimate that in the last two days they have already received about 28,000 replies. The 3,000 opened today contained £157,000 in repayments. The vast majority of callers have also indicated a willingness to repay. This indicates a positive outlook for recovery from customers. No estimate is yet available as to the extra costs incurred in recovering the overpaid benefit. I hope this is helpful.