§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the number of staff currently employed directly in detecting social security or benefit fraud, the total amount of fraud detected in the last available year and the amount of money saved by their efforts.
§ Mr. PrenticeSome 435 special investigators based on my Department's regional offices investigate the more complex cases. In 1978–79 they investigated some 38,000 cases, of which 17,700 were found to be fraudulent. Estimates of benefit savings must of necessity be broadly-based but might be put, on cautious assumptions, in the region of £10 million a year, though some recent data suggest that, on alternative and perhaps more realistic assumptions as to the length of204W time wrongful benefits continue if not discovered, this estimate might reasonably be doubled.
As regards the local offices of My Department, most staff in them are concerned to some extent with the prevention and detection of fraudulent claims for social security benefits. About 1,000 man-years (including part-time posts) are currently used in those offices to investigate suspected social security fraud cases. Reliable figures about the benefit savings attributable to their work are, again, not available, but the total of such savings is thought to be somewhat higher than the total savings achieved by the special investigators.
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the estimated given savings resulting from employing special investigators, and estimated cost of employing special investigators; and if he will present the costs as a percentage of the saving for each year since 1974.
§ Mr. PrenticeThe cost of employing special investigators in my Department has been estimated as follows:
£ million 1974 1.7 1975 2.1 1976 2.5 1977 2.7 1978 3.4 Existing data have not permitted the benefit savings to be estimated other than on a broad basis. On certain cautious assumptions adopted in the past, the savings might be in the region of £10 million a year, but some recent data suggest that, on alternative and perhaps more realistic assumptions as to the length of time wrongful benefits continue in payment if not discovered the estimate might reasonably doubled. The arrangements for collecting and evaluating relevant data are currently being examined.
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will detail the number and type of cases investigated by special investigators, setting out the outcome of the investigations, for each year since 1976.
§ Mr. PrenticeSpecial investigators in my Department mainly investigate the type of case which is beyond the scope of local office resources, e.g. those which 205W demand substantial travelling, protracted observations, or investigation outside normal office hours.
Their investigations are not confined to any particular type of offence (though generally they are not employed on individual girocheque fraud) but the table attached shows a breakdown of the completed investigations for the years
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION 1976* Type of Offence (Supplementary benefit cases, save for (g) below) Completed investigations Allowances withdrawn or reduced (a) Undisclosed Income: Earnings of claimant or dependant as Employee … … … … … … 12,006 4,618 (b) Undisclosed Income: Earnings of claimant or dependant from Self-employment … … … … … 6,311 2,411 (c) Undisclosed Income: Other income or capital assets … 417 158 (d) Fictitious desertion … … … … … … 1,724 785 (e) Undisclosed Cohabitation … … … … … 9,123 3,712 (f) All other cases of suspected fraud or abuse … … 284 108 (g) Contributory Benefit cases … … … … … — — Total … … … … … … … 29,865 11,792
1977–78† (a) Undisclosed Income: Earnings of claimant or dependant as Employee … … … … … … 14,108 5,143 (b) Undisclosed Income: Earnings of claimant or dependant from Self-employment … … … … … 7,498 2,748 (c) Undisclosed Income: Other income or capital resets … 319 117 (d) Fictitious desertion … … … … … … 2,150 975 (e) Undisclosed Cohabitation … … … … … 9,916 3,987 (f) All other cases of suspected fraud or abuse … … 249 114 (g) Contributory Benefit cases … … … … … 1,847 440 Total … … … … … … … 36,087 13,524 1978–79† (a) Undisclosed Income: Earnings of claimant or dependant as Employee … … … … … … 14,642 5,471 (b) Undisclosed Income: Earnings of claimant or dependant from Self-employment … … … … … 7,801 3,125 (c) Undisclosed Income: Other income or capital assets … 339 116 (d) Fictitious desertion … … … … … … 2,097 926 (e) Undisclosed Cohabitation … … … … … 9,920 3,936 (f) All other cases of suspected fraud or abuse … … 202 96 (g) Contributory Benefit cases … … … … … 2,847 682 Total … … … … … … … 37,848 14,352 * Calendar year. † Twelve months beginning in February.
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many special investigators have been employed by his Department for each year since 1970.
§ Mr. PrenticeThe number of special investigators in post in my Department as at the 31 December each year since 1970 is as follows:
206W
1970 248 1971 278 requested, by broad categories of supplementary benefit offence. Until comparatively recently, special investigators were concerned with supplementary benefit cases only. However, contributory benefits have increasingly required their attention, and this has been reflected in these figures, from part-way through the 1977–78 year. The contributory benefit cases are not analysed by offence categories.
1972 285 1973 314 1974 336 1975 362 1976 383 1977 398 1978 435
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the number of cases (a) investigated, and (b) where the allowance was withdrawn or reduced 207W for family allowances/child benefit, retirement pension, unemployment benefit, other national insurance benefit, and supplementary benefit in each year since 1974; and if he will detail the number of claims to each of these benefits over the same time period.
§ Mr. PrenticeAlthough every suspicious case is investigated, records are
DETECTED BENEFIT FRAUD—EXCLUDING ITINERANT FRAUD, ORGANISED FRAUD, AND FRAUD CONCERNING INSTRUMENTS OF PAYMENT 1974* 1975* 1976† 1977–78† 1978–79† Family allowance or Child Benefit 689 704 655 371 282 Retirement Pension … … 2,750 2,291 1,687 975 746 Unemployment Benefit … … 7,886 11,380 17,113 19,878 24,695 Other Contributory Benefit … 7,577 7,591 7,015 7,290 8,143 Supplementary Benefit … … 15,152 17,537 21,085 27,988 33,073 TOTALS … … … 34,054 39,503 47,555 56,502 66,939 Number of Claims— Family allowance or Child Benefit 384,745 369,144 350,482‡ 573,658‡ 661,292‡ Retirement Pension … … 618,106 622,034 608,996 589,835 583,764 Unemployment Benefit … … 3,218,000 4,427,000 4,775,000 4,600,000 4,383,000 Other Contributory Benefit … 11,991,100 11,739,819 12,855,625 12,255,813 13,330,958 Supplementary Benefit … … 4,951,593 5,226,200 5,609,185 5,777,233 5,547,396 TOTALS … … … 21,163,544 22,384,197 24,199,288 23,796,539 24,506,414
In addition a small number of benefit fraud cases were referred to the police:— Contributory Benefit (excluding unemployment benefit) … 24 51 237 230 213 Supplementary Benefit … … 94 91 197 698 736 * Calendar year. † Twelve months beginning during February. ‡ Estimated figures due to staff dispute.
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many (a) investigations, (b) reductions or withdrawals of allowances, and (c) prosecutions took place for unemployed claimants drawing national insurance benefit, and supplementary benefit for each year since 1970.
§ Mr. PrenticeThere is no record of the number of investigations in which no fraud was found. The following are the details of cases of detected unemployment benefit fraud:
Year (a) Investigated (b) Prosecuted 1970 10,941 1,005 1971 12,441 1,342 1972 14,531 1,791 1973 11,040 1,505 1974 7,886 1,285 1975 11,380 1,681 1976 17,113 2,376 1977–78 19,878 3,540 1978–79 24,695 3,049 It is not possible to show reductions or withdrawals of allowance within these figures.
208Wnot kept of cases where evidence of fraud is not found. The numbers of detected benefit fraud cases are shown in the table attached, which also shows the number of claims.
Information about the number of cases where the allowance was withdrawn or reduced is not available and the cost of producing them could not be justified.
A considerable number of people drawing supplementary benefit are prosecuted for earnings offences, but it is not possible to provide separate figures showing how many of these prosecutions are of registered unemployed (i.e. available for work) people receiving supplementary allowance because they have no title to unemployment benefit.