HC Deb 15 October 2001 vol 372 cc823-4W
16. Patrick Mercer

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the amount of money lost in benefit fraud in 2000–01. [3591]

Mr. Darling

In our 1999 paper "Safeguarding Social Security" we estimated that £2 billion was lost annually due to confirmable benefit fraud.

We have set firm targets to halve the amount of fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance by 2006. We have already met our first milestone, of a 10 per cent. reduction, 18 months ahead of schedule.

17. Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to set targets for reducing benefit fraud in Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. [3592]

Malcolm Wicks

This year we have introduced for the first time a continuous measure of the level of Housing Benefit fraud. We will consider the appropriateness and scope for setting targets for reducing the level of incorrectness in Housing Benefit in the light of the results of this exercise.