§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish details of the work carried out by his Department's compensation recovery unit since it was established showing the number of cases in which it had reclaimed benefit payments, the total sum recovered for each year of its operation and the total annual operating cost of the unit including all administrative costs, salaries and all other outlays incurred by the unit since its creation.
§ Mr. Roger EvansThis is a matter for Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He626W family credit, (c) child benefit, (d) pension, (e) widow's pension, (f) invalidity benefit and (g) unemployment benefit, from the Post Office each week in each year since 1989–90;
(2) how many people in England and Wales had (a) income support, (b) family credit, (c) child benefit, (d) pension, (e) widow's pension, (f) invalidity benefit and (g) unemployment benefit paid directly into a bank account in each year since 1989–90.
§ Mr. Roger EvansThis is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available.
Letter from Michael Bichard to Mr. Geoffrey Robinson, dated 28 November 1994:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking about the payment of benefit into bank accounts or at the Post Office.Information is not available in the exact format requested. This is because data is not collated relating to the number of customers being paid on a weekly basis at Post Offices. To obtain this information would be at a disproportionate cost.That information that is available regarding payments by automated credit transfer is not captured geographically nor weekly and to obtain it for England and Wales would be at a disproportionate cost.However, I have provided at Appendix A a table showing the number of customers, on an annual basis, from the year 1989–90 who have been paid by automated credit transfer.I hope you find this reply helpful.
will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available.
Letter from Michael Bichard to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 28 November 1994:
627WThe Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking for the number of cases in which the Compensation Recovery Unit had reclaimed benefit payments, the total sum recovered and the annual operating costs of the Unit including all administrative costs, salaries and all other outlays since its creation.The information requested has been provided for each financial year.I hope you find this reply helpful.
Period Number of cases Total amount recovered £ million Operating costs £ million 1 August 1989–31 March 1990 — — 0.13 1 April 1990–31 March 1991 3,950 3.7 1.7 1 April 1991–31 March 1992 20,781 25.3 1.9 1 April 1992–31 March 1993 30,782 51.3 2.1 1 April 1993–31 March 1994 36,094 81.9 2.7 1 April 1994–31 October 1994 22,224 56.2 1.7