§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the local authorities inspected by the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate which were found to have Housing Benefit application forms that did not ask for a claimant's(a) income and (b) National Insurance number. [111240]
§ Angela Eagle[holding answer 21 February 2000]: To date the BFI have completed 41 local authority inspections. They found:
no cases where the Housing Benefit application form did not ask for any details of a claimant's income, although there were examples where the claim form did not request information on all relevant income required to determine entitlement to benefit;one case (London Borough of Croydon, inspected in June 1998) where the form did not ask for the National Insurance number. There were other examples where the request for the National Insurance number was restricted to specific circumstances.Since 6 September 1999, a person making a claim for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit must provide (in relation to themself and any partner in respect of whom they are claiming benefit) a National Insurance number and evidence that that number has been allocated to them; or information to allow one to be to be traced or allocated. LAs should, therefore, now have procedures in place to ensure that claimants meet this requirement and to be able to show that this procedure has been followed.
The Verification Framework, available to all LAs as good practice guidance and a mandatory set of instructions for those LAs which receive additional funding, requires that the claim form should collect the NINO for the claimant and the partner.