§ 29. Mr. JackTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many announcements of social security fraud reduction targets he has made since 1997; and which targets have been fully achieved. [141831]
§ Mr. RookerIn March 1999, for the first time, we set a public service agreement target to reduce fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance by at least 10 per cent. by March 2002 with a further target of a 30 per cent. reduction by March 2007.
In July we announced, and are committed to achieving, revised targets to reduce fraud and error by 25 per cent. by March 2004 and by 50 per cent. by March 2006.
The latest figures from the Government Statistical Service show a significant fall in fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance and demonstrates we are well on track to meet our first target by 2002.
§ Dr. GibsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what recent steps have been taken to counter benefit fraud. [141816]
§ Mr. RookerWe are taking effective action to combat Social Security fraud. We are implementing a strategy to ensure that from the start of the claim the right benefits are going to the right people at the right time. Among the new measures we have introduced are a new fraud bill, tighter checks on new Income Support claimants, cross-checking DSS records with information from other Government Departments and the automatic transfer of claims related data from the Benefits Agency to local authorities.