Disability Living Allowance (Hansard, 13 March 1998)

§ Mr. Denham

The Benefit Integrity Project aims to ensure that those in receipt of DLA are entitled to it. While it is right to check that people are receiving the correct amount of benefit, we are determined that those checks should be undertaken as sensitively as possible. Also, that we should ensure all decisions taken as a result of the project are right. We have, therefore, acted to introduce an extra safeguard to improve the quality of, and confidence in, benefit decisions made by the Project.

The administration of this programme is a matter for Peter Mathison, Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to my hon. Friend with further details.

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. John McAllion, dated 12 March 1998: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked Peter Mathison to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many claimants in receipt of (a) higher mobility rate of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and (b) the highest care rate of DLA have to date been subjected to the Benefits Integrity Programme (BIP) in (a) Dundee, (b) Scotland and (c) the United Kingdom; how many in each category have had their benefit reduced as a result; and what is the total saving in each category. As Mr Mathison is away from the office on leave, I am replying. The information is not available in the format requested. The database of casework has not been designed to extract information geographically during the project. To do so would necessitate high cost and disruption to the processing of ongoing casework. However, once the casework has been completed a full evaluation of the data is planned to provide a geographical analysis. All BIP cases involve customers with entitlement to higher rate mobility component combined with either highest or middle rate care component of DLA. As at 31 January 1998, a total of 54,839 cases, have been examined as part of the BIP. Of these total cases dealt with 1,299 have had their benefit increased, 6,884 have had their benefit reduced and 3,926 have had their benefit disallowed. The total includes 10,811 renewal cases, of which 334 have had their benefit increased, 2,907 have had their benefit reduced and 1,969 have had their benefit disallowed. Of the cases looked at by BIP 16,562 customers have the highest rate care component. Of these 3,475 have had reductions to benefit. These reductions may involve the mobility component, the care component or both components. A monthly statistical report is produced and a copy of the report for January 1998 can be found in the House of Commons Library. An up to date savings assessment is not currently available, but we have this under review. I will write to you again as soon as this information becomes available. I hope you find the reply helpful.