§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many DSS employees have been charged with fraud in each year since 1979; what was the value of this fraud; and what is the estimated total value of frauds committed by DSS employees for each of those years.
§ Mr. HagueThe information is in the table.
Information is not available for the period 1979 to 1983, and only partial details are available for the period 1984 to 1987. There is no basis on which to estimate the total value of unknown fraud committed. The figures in column 4 relate to the value of fraud on the part of DSS employees detected each year. Where criminal prosecution was not considered to be appropriate the incidents were dealt with by internal disciplinary measures.
Year Number of staff prosecuted Amount of fraud involved (£) Known total value of internal fraud 1984 9 35,816.39 — 1985 4 41,484.88 — 1986 3 13,563.27 — 1987 10 22,911.09 — 1988 1 4,206.05 7,802.33 1989 1 42,924.80 57,628.31 1990 1 34,084.90 55,933.91 1991 1 46,649.07 160,040.53 1992 3 106,961.35 160,276.76 1993 3 93,617.25 195,635.93