Benefit Fraud (Hansard, 21 May 1996)

§ 14. Mr. Cousins
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what action he is taking to tackle housing benefit fraud. [28818]

§ Mr. Heald
On 5 March my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced a series of measures including an £8 million challenge fund to develop local authority innovation against fraud and a data-matching service to detect fraudulent benefit claims. These will not only step up the fight against housing benefit fraud, but also move towards preventing fraud from getting into the system in the first place.

§ Mr. Battle
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many staff in his Department have been employed full time in tackling social security fraud for each year since 1979. [30419]

§ Mr. Heald
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the list:

1991–92: 3,344

1992–93: 3,344

1993–94: 3,328

1994–95: 3,363

1995–96: 3,793.5

1996–97: 5,046.

Notes
1 The numbers relate to staff employed in the benefit fraud investigation service (formerly sector fraud), organised fraud teams and staff employed on instrument of payment anti-fraud initiatives.
2. Prior to the creation of the Benefits Agency in April 1991, staff employed on fraud investigation duties were part of the local and regional office complement and information relating to numbers employed are not available.

§ Mr. Battle
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the savings accruing to public funds from campaigns against benefit fraud in each since 1979. [30416]

§ Mr. Heald
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.

Year Savings£ million

1986–87 144

1987–88 196

1988–89 262

1989–90 309

1990–91 341

1991–92 446

1992–93 558

1993–94 654

1994–95 717

Notes:
1. Savings from the Department's anti-fraud measures have only been routinely collected from 1986–87.
2. Finalised figures for 1995–96 are not yet available.
177W

§ Miss Hoey
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what estimate he has made of the annual amount of money lost through fraud in child benefit payments; [30311]
(2) how many successful prosecutions there have been in the last year relating to child benefit fraud. [30312]

§ Mr. Heald
The information requested is not available.
The Benefits Agency is undertaking a series of benefit reviews which determine the amount of incorrectness, including fraud, in each benefit reviewed. Over the five-year period of the security strategy launched by the Secretary of State in July 1995, all the major benefits, including child benefit, will be reviewed.

§ Mr. Battle
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much is being spent on the publicity campaign to tackle benefit fraud, set out by parliamentary constituency. [30421]

§ Mr. Heald
The information is not available in the format requested as costings specific to parliamentary constituencies are not kept. However, to date the estimated total publicity costs for the first seven areas of the anti-fraud campaign are £407,710.
This figure covers radio and printed advertising, leaflet and poster production and distribution and press support material production.

Year	Savings£ million
1986–87	144
1987–88	196
1988–89	262
1989–90	309
1990–91	341
1991–92	446
1992–93	558
1993–94	654
1994–95	717