HC Deb 05 March 1996 vol 273 cc164-5W
Mr. Robathan

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what further measures he proposes to introduce to reduce the level of benefit fraud. [19338]

Mr. Lilley

As part of the five-year security strategy which I announced last July, and in the light of the results of benefit reviews of income support and housing benefit which suggest that around 10 per cent. of benefit claims are fraudulent, I propose;

  1. (a) to double to 600,000 the number of home visits to check new claims for entitlement and review existing ones.
  2. (b) to increase cross-checking of information about benefit claimant, both within DSS and with local authorities through a new computerised housing benefit central register, to detect fraud.
  3. (c) to introduce from this autumn the benefit payment card which will virtually eliminate fraud in the payment system.
  4. (d) to initiate a series of month-long local anti-fraud drives in major urban areas round the country, designed to give people who have just drifted into abusing the benefit system the chance to put their claim right and to catch those who choose not to do so. The drives will be preceded by two weeks of intensive local publicity, leading up to the launch of a "freephone" hotline to tell DSS staff in confidence about suspected fraud; local data-matching exercises; increased numbers of visits to claimants; use of bar-code scanners in post-office to detect stolen order books; and special drives on categories of employers and self-employed likely to be involved in benefit fraud.
  5. (e) to launch three initiatives involving local authorities. First, a study of a unified computer system to share information with the Benefits Agency, which would help prevent housing benefit fraud. Secondly, a study looking at how best to prevent fraudulent housing benefit claims from entering the system, through improved, standardised methods and checks. Thirdly, encouraging local authorities to set up teams to work alongside the Benefits Agency to tackle organised housing benefit and council tax benefit fraud, sharing the expertise of the Benefits Agency in this field.
  6. (f) to establish the benefit fraud investigation service on 1 April, through the merger of Employment Service and Benefits Agency security staff. About 1,100 Employment Service investigators will join the Benefits Agency.

I expect these changes to contribute to a new target for savings from anti-fraud activities of £1.5 billion in 1996–97.