§ Mr. Alan HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many calls have been made to the benefit cheats hotline; and of those, how many were later found to be(a) confirmed fraud, (b) suspected fraud, and (c) no fraud suspected. [6054]
§ Mr. HealdThe information is not available in the format requested because of the time taken to conclude investigations and to collate the data.
However, the national benefit fraud hotline has answered over 100,000 calls since the launch on 5 August 1996.
§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland Security what percentage of Coventry's target of £927,234 to be uncovered from benefit fraud has so far been received. [5863]
§ Mr. Heald[holding answer 27 November 1996]Each local authority is set a threshold of weekly benefit savings to be made through the detection of housing benefit and council tax benefit fraud. Authorities can earn additional subsidy through performance in relation to their WBS thresholds, and can have subsidy withheld for poor performance.
821WAs at 30 September 1996 WBS recorded for the city of Coventry were £647,341–70 per cent. of its threshold for 1996–97.