§ Mr. Gareth WardellTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many calls have been made on the benefit fraud hotline to date; how many of those have been found to provide information that was substantiated; and if he will separately distinguish the figures between England and Wales. [9690]
§ Mr. HealdThe national benefit fraud hotline has received in excess of 125,000 calls up to 12 December 1996.
619WInformation is not collected to show numbers of calls where the information was substantiated—where our investigations entirely confirm the caller's allegation. The results of investigations from referrals generated by the hotline are only starting to emerge. However, of the 25,942 investigations initiated by the end of November, 11,180 have been completed. Of these, 3,082 investigations have achieved benefit savings of £11,760,635.
Fraud investigations take some time to follow through, depending on the complexity of the investigation. Therefore in time, the volume and rate of investigations completed will increase until a steady state is achieved.
It is not possible to give separate figures for England and Wales as the information is not collected in this format.