§ Mr. MudieTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list(a) the percentage of cases found in error and (b) the estimated financial value of the errors in respect of income support in each year since 1988–89. [21808]
§ Mr. Roger EvansThe administration of income support is a matter for Mr. Ian Magee, the acting chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Ian Magee to Mr. George Mudie, dated 3 May 1995:
307WThe Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking about the accuracy of Income Support and the value of errors since 1988.The full range of information is not available. Although the Benefits Agency has longstanding procedures to provide information about the accuracy of benefit payments, a mechanism to establish the financial value of errors identified during checks was not put in place until April 1994. This information is not yet available for the full year ending March 1995. The information given in the attached table has been obtained from National Audit Office reports.I hope you find this reply helpful.
Extract of results of National Audit Office of income support 1988–89 to 1993–94 Year Cases containing financial error (per cent.) Total monetary value of errors £ million 1988–89 13.5 160.0 1989–90 14.4 219.6 1990–91 13.6 344.9 1991–92 16.9 411.8 1992–93 16.3 715.9 1993–94 16.8 681.5
§ Mr. Alan HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the cost of providing income support to spouses of people whose occupational pensions are contributing to the cost of local authority residential and nursing home care. [22280]
§ Mr. ArbuthnotThe information is not available.