§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many claimants have been deemed to have made fraudulent unemployment benefits claims in each month since May 1991.
§ Mr. McLoughlinResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Tony Worthington, dated 11 May 1993:
As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to write to you direct to respond to your Parliamentary Question about the number of fraudulently made claims to unemployment benefits. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.
Unfortunately, the information you requested is not available in the required format. However, I have provided below the quarterly figures of the number of people who have 449W voluntarily withdrawn their claims to benefit, or have started to declare part-time earnings not previously disclosed, as a direct result of an investigation by an Employment Service Inspector.
Quarterly periods Withdrawn/modified claims 1 April 1991 to 30 June 1991 12,451 1 July 1991 to 31 September 1991 13,351 1 October 1991 to 31 December 1991 12,528 1 January 1992 to 31 March 1992 14,691 1 April 1992 to 30 June 1992 17,747 1 July 1992 to 31 September 1992 18,555 1 October 1992 to 31 December 1992 15,150 1 January 1993 to 31 March 1993 12,259 I hope this is helpful.
As decided by the Administration Committee of the House of Commons, Chief Executive replies to written Parliamentary Questions will now be published in the Official Report. I will also place a copy of this letter in the Library of the House.