§ Mr. LoveTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what are(a) the known costs to the social security housing benefit account of (i) established fraud, (ii) suspected fraud, (iii) claimant error and (iv) official error over the last five years and (b) the projected costs in these categories for the current year; and if she will make a statement. [35093]
§ Mr. DenhamThe information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is set out in the table.
£ million 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 Housing Benefit: Fraud Note 1 18.5 38.0 43.2 Housing Benefit: Claimant error 37.3 42.7 49.5 47.2 Housing Benefit: "Other" 5.7 5.5 Note 1 Note 1 Housing Benefit: Local Authority error (no costs met by Department of Social Security after 31/3/93) 3.4 0 0 0 Housing Benefit: Departmental error (recovered amount only is shown) 0.3 0.3 1.3 0.3 Notes
1. Included in "Housing Benefit Claimant Error".
2. Except where otherwise annotated, the figures in the table show the costs to the Department of Social Security of Housing Benefit payments made incorrectly by local authorities in Great Britain because of established fraud or error. The level of subsidy paid by the Department varies according to the category of incorrect payment.
3. Local authority audited final subsidy claims for the financial year 1996/97 are not yet available.
Source
Local authority audited final subsidy claims.
The first Housing Benefit review, in 1995, estimated the overall cost of incorrectness in housing benefit to be around £1 billion: this estimate includes confirmed and suspected fraud, as well as claimant and official error. The Department is currently conducting a further review to update that estimate.