§ Mr. WatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on his proposals to reform Housing Benefit. [102094]
§ Angela EagleWe are committed to driving forward improvements in the benefit services authorities provide, so that they are faster, more accurate and more secure, while also achieving value for money and taking account of the views and needs of local people.
We are already working towards this aim. For example we have introduced a regime which requires more rigorous verification and checking, (including a legal requirement which involves establishing a person's identity). In addition, over 200 local authorities have already joined the Royal Mail "Do Not Redirect" scheme, to prevent fraudulent claimants submitting benefit claims from false addresses.
From next April the Best Value regime will be introduced. This will drive up standards of service delivery in local authorities through a series of challenging targets against key areas of performance.
We will present further proposals for reform of the Housing Benefit scheme in a Green Paper in due course. This will further tackle the weaknesses of the system we inherited.