HC Deb 28 July 1998 vol 317 c193W
Mr. Duncan Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when he will publish his Department's review of benefit rules announced in the Green Paper on Fraud. [53112]

Mr. Denham

Reviewing the benefit rules which are most frequently broken will take some months to complete. We will report on our progress in the Government's second annual anti-fraud audit, which will be published next year.

Mr. Duncan Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what calculations his Department has made of the estimated(a) maximum and (b) minimum benefit savings from increased (i) prevention and (ii) detection of benefit fraud over the next three years. [53108]

Mr. Denham

Our current estimates have been inherited from the previous administration and are for savings arising from detective activity for the next two years by the Department and by local authorities. These savings are £2.4 billion in 1998–99, and £2.5 billion in 1999–2000.

As we explained in the Green Paper "Beating Fraud is Everyone's Business: Securing the Future", a key element of our new anti-fraud strategy is the development of better measures of the amount of fraud, and the savings which flow from particular preventive and detective activities. This will, over time, allow us to refine our estimates of future savings as well as to direct anti-fraud resources to where they are most effective.

Mr. Duncan Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when he will publish the code of practice on the use of data and data-matching announced in the Green Paper on Fraud. [53113]

Mr. Denham

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Mr. Cohen) on 29 June 1998,Official Report, columns 112–13.

Mr. Duncan Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what assessment he has made of the monthly level of fraud involving benefit payment cards; [53129]

(2) if he will make a statement on the timetable for extending the Benefit Payment Card nationally. [53128]

Mr. Denham

The Payment Card is designed to virtually eliminate fraud at the point of encashment. To date there have been no recorded examples of this type of fraud using a Payment Card.

Current plans provide for the automation of post offices nationally to start in the first half of 1999 and to be completed by the end of 2000.