§ Mr. ClappisonTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cases of(a) housing benefit and (b) council tax benefit fraud have been detected and how many successful prosecutions have been brought in each year since 1997. [7676]
§ Malcolm WicksWe are working in partnership with local authorities to drive up standards across the board and tackle fraud and error. Over half of local authorities have begun to operate the verification framework, making thorough checks on all housing benefit claimants before payments are made.
Information is not available separately for housing benefit and council tax benefit. The number of fraudulent cases and prosecutions reported by local authorities is in the table:
Year Number of cases where fraud was established and a weekly benefit saving was claimed1 Number of successful prosecutions1 1997–98 220,000 700 1998–99 160,000 800 1999–2000 120,000 860 2000–01 100,000 1,100 1 Data are not available for all 409 local authorities. The total for Great Britain includes estimates for local authorities that have not responded. These estimates are based on historical and regional data. This type of estimate is standard practice in reporting totals where there have been non-respondents. Note:
The figures have been rounded to two significant figures.