§ Mr. Robert Sheldonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has made of the total annual cost of employing 1,000 staff to reduce fraud in the benefits system.
§ Mr. PrenticeThe total annual cost to the Department of employing 1,000 staff on fraud and abuse work is of the order of £6 million. The exercise which I announced in my reply to my hon. Friend98W the Member for Huntingdonshire (Mr. Major) on 13 February calls for 1050 extra staff, 450 of whom are being redeployed from other work and 600 of whom are additional staff. The total annual cost of the latter to the Department is approximately £½ million—[Vol. 978, c. 710–11.]