§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services in how many other cases his Department has paid social security benefits to the next of kin when their parents or relatives have died and when such persons were living abroad prior to their decease in addition to the case submitted to him by the hon. Member for Newham, North-West, and what action he takes to check to see that such payments are being legitimately made and not being paid for non-existent persons.
§ Mr. OrmeSupplementary benefit cases of the kind raised by my hon. Friend would be rare indeed, as regular declarations are required of financial circumstances, and other checks include visits to claimants' homes. Where such fraud is established the Department seeks to prosecute the person responsible; but it would not be possible to abstract from our records the number of prosecutions for this precise types of fraud without disproportionate effort.