§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will set out the national baseline targets for the total weekly benefit savings to be achieved by local authorities in each year since the introduction of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on(a) the basis on which the level of these targets were determined and (b) the performance of local authorities in meeting these targets in each year. [25732]
§ Malcolm WicksTables showing individual threshold figures and the individual performance against the thresholds for each local authority, from the introduction of the weekly benefit savings anti-fraud incentive scheme in April 1993 to March 2001, have been placed in the Library.
The level of the threshold targets was determined according to local authority housing benefit and council tax benefit (HB/CTB) expenditure and by weighted case load to reflect estimates of relative risks of different types of cases using available data, such as the housing benefit accuracy reviews.
The weekly benefit savings scheme is being replaced over two years from April 2001 with a new, more comprehensive scheme to reduce fraud and error in HB/CTB covering prevention, detection, sanctions and prosecutions.