§ Ms BuckTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many child benefit payments have been(a) suspended pending further inquiries and (b) terminated as a consequence of this summer's identity confirmation exercise; and what proportion each figure constitutes of the number of claimants for each region of the UK. [10565]
708W
§ Malcolm WicksThe Department carries out a number of initiatives to confirm identity information each year. An initiative to which this question may be referring is one that checks a sample number of child benefit recipients who receive payment by automated credit transfer.
This initiative is continuing and the latest figures available are for the period June 2000 to March 2001:
- 168,000 customers included in exercise
- 3,711 ChB accounts suspended.
Information is not available on the number of payments terminated or on a regional basis.