§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what systems are in place to scrutinise the effectiveness of verification framework practices; and when the results of that scrutiny will be published. [109367]
§ Angela EagleWe will use information from a range of sources to monitor the effectiveness of the Verification Framework (VF) in helping local authorities to improve accuracy and reduce fraud and error from entering the Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit system. We have monitored the live running of the VF from its launch and have already made several improvements to the VF in the light of operational experience to enable LAs to focus more on the outcomes that we require rather than specifying detailed process requirements.
The information we will use includes: management information provided by individual local authorities on a quarterly basis; information and reports from representative groups and individuals; inspections made by the BFI and checking compliance with the VF through external auditors at the same time as the normal audit of administration subsidy.
We have also commissioned an independent research company to conduct in depth research with local authorities to evaluate the implementation and operation of the Verification Framework. We plan to publish the findings in early 2001.
We will continue to monitor the VF and will consider further improvements when we have analysed information from the range of sources available.