§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, for each of the supplementary benefit offices at Thames North, Scarborough Street, London, El, Thames South, Marshalsea Road, London, SE1 and Glasgow, Cranstonhill, respectively, he will publish in the Official Report (a) the number of full-time officers employed to investigate fraud, (b) the total number of fraud cases taken under the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976, the corresponding number of 381W convictions obtained and the number of custodial sentences and fines; (c) the total number of supplementary benefit fraud cases taken under the Theft Act 1968, the corresponding number of convictions obtained and the number of custodial sentences and fines under each of the headings (i) undisclosed earnings, (ii) failure to declare date/place of last claim, (iii) false address, and (iv) altered
Year Ended 13 April 1982 Year Ended 16 February 1982 Thames South Thames North Glasgow Cranstonhill All DHSS Local Offices (a) Number of full-time officers employed to investigate fraud 2 3 1 The equivalent of 2,362 full-time officers* (b) Total Number of Fraud cases taken under the Supplementary Benefit Act 1979 NIL NIL 8 16,423 (including 722 itinerants† (c) Total Number of Supplementary Benefit cases taken under Theft Act 1968 †145 †115 NIL 16,423 (including 722 itinerants)‡ Number of convictions 141 115 5 768 itinerants) (i) undisclosed [...]C1 C6 C NIL —¶ earnings F 1 F 7 F 2 (ii) failure to declare date C 40 C 10 C 1 — place of last claim F 18 F 3 F 1 — (iii) False address C 21 C 12 C 1 — F 6 F 7 F 1 — (iv) altered girocheque C 1 C 1 C NIL — F NIL F NEL F NIL — (d) Total Number of Supplementary Benefit claims 9,852 56,070 9,123 5,628,653 * Most fraud officers deal with all benefit fraud, including contributory benefit fraud. † Includes cases taken by the Police. ‡ It is not possible to identify centrally the particular Acts under which cases were taken. [...] C = custodial sentences F = fines ¶ Information on the nature of the offence for which prosecution action has been taken is not collected centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Of the 15,923 convictions, 408 (224 itinerants) resulted in custodial sentences and 7,098 (151 itinerants) in fines.