§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what estimate he has made of the annual administrative costs of recovering unpaid(a) benefit and (b) income support per claimant; and how much was spent by the Benefits Agency recovering overpaid (i) benefit and (ii) income support in each of the last 12 months; [108644]
(2) how many Benefits Agency claimants were overpaid (a) benefit and (b) income support in each of the last 12 months; and how many of these claimants have repaid that (i) benefit and (ii) income support in full; [108643]
(3) what is his policy in respect of recovering overpaid benefit from claimants overpaid by (a) over £5.00 and (b) under £5.00; [108645]
(4) how much (a) benefit and (b) income support was overpaid in each of the last 12 months; and how much of this (i) benefit and (ii) income support was recovered from claimants; [108642]
(5) what methods are used by the Benefits Agency to recover overpaid benefit from claimants who do not repay such benefit voluntarily; and in what percentage of overpayment cases these methods are used. [108646]
§ Angela Eagle[pursuant to her reply, 7 February 2000, c. 60–62W]: Administration of benefits and recovery of overpayments is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, Peter Mathison. He will write to the hon. Member.
792WLetter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 17 February 2000:
I am writing pursuant to Mark Fisher's letter of 4 February 2000 in response to your Parliamentary Questions about overpaid benefits.I am afraid that some of the statistics in the table attached to Mr. Fisher's letter were incorrect.I would be grateful if you would accept my apologies for the error, and find an amended reply attached.Amended reply from Peter Mathison to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 17 February 2000:
The Secretary of State has asked me to respond to your recent questions about overpaid benefits.The Benefits Agency (BA) aims to obtain the recovery of overpayments as quickly and efficiently as possible by the most cost-effective method, without causing hardship, and in accordance with Government Accounting and Departmental Policy.The BA spent £44m on recovering overpayments in the period April to December 1999. A monthly breakdown of this figure is set out in the attached appendix. Some of the information is not available in the format requested. For example, the BA does not break this down by benefit or by the number of overpayments recovered. Prior to April 1999, the BA did not separately identify costs relating purely to overpayment recovery across the whole BA.The BA captures information on the value of recoveries made. The number of overpayments arising during 1998–99 totalled just over one million, and 707,000 have been raised so far this year. A monthly breakdown of the recovery figures for the last 12 months is attached, they also provide a breakdown showing Income Support (IS) and all benefits (including IS) as you have requested.The BA does not normally seek repayment of overpayments less than £25. This is based on cost-effectiveness and in line with Government Accounting. However, there may be occasions when this is not adhered to, for example, when the overpayment has been quickly identified and the sum to be recovered is still likely to be held by the claimant and easily recoverable.The BA recovers overpayments by deductions from ongoing benefits, instalments, by a lump sum, or by civil proceedings. Typically, the BA will firstly invite repayment and in the vast majority of cases, recovery is implemented by mutual agreement between the debtor and the BA.Where the debtor remains in receipt of benefit and is not in a position to repay the overpayment immediately, recovery is normally pursued by deduction from ongoing benefit entitlement. This deduction can also be imposed compulsorily if no offer of repayment is forthcoming. Deductions from benefit, whether voluntary or compulsory, account for 74% of the overpayments currently being recovered.Where customers are not in receipt of any benefit, repayments will be expected. A person's failure to respond to an invitation to repay (or making an unreasonable offer) could lead the BA to consider seeking recovery through a civil action. The threshold for acceptance for civil action is currently £150. There is a six year time limit on proceedings.6.5% of overpayments currently being recovered have been subject to civil proceedings. The remaining are being recovered by other voluntary arrangements.Policy on civil proceedings to recover overpayments is that litigation is not pursued where the debtor remains in receipt of benefit. For those not in receipt of benefit, litigation is pursued as a last resort where voluntary arrangements are unsuccessful or break down.Recovery procedures follow guidance as provided in Government Accounting, where the recovery is likely to be detrimental to the health and/or welfare of the debtor or a member of their family, the Secretary of State has the power to exercise discretion and abandon recovery.793WRecovery of an overpayment arising as a result of an official error is pursued if the overpayment is identified quickly and it is reasonable to expect the customer to have been aware of the overpayment. Duplicate payments are classed as over provisions of
£ January February March April May June 1999 Tot no. new rec OP's in mth (IS) 27,123 26,639 30,777 18,567 18,281 21,877 Tot no. new rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) 52,561 53,199 60,183 45,342 44,082 51,786 Value of new rec OP's in mth (IS) 18,796,579 18,737,449 22,131,924 13,447,701 12,600,292 14,728,335 Value of new rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) 32,178,016 32,018,594 35,228,960 24,723,691 24,373,316 27,035,826 Tot no. new non-rec OP's in mth (IS) 20,339 22,045 24,800 17,554 19,761 23,758 Tot no. new non-rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) 43,143 45,749 46,818 37,040 39,214 45,257 Value of new non-rec OP's in mth (IS) 5,591,053 6,182,900 6,961,243 4,987,801 5,457,898 6,664,630 Value of new non-rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) 10,089,015 10,436,679 10,393,257 8,644,667 9,109,519 10,770,468 Value of Recoveries (IS) 8,418,487 8,969,871 9,893,388 9,285,188 9,003,896 10,405,948 Total Value of Recoveries (All Benefits) 11,430,165 12,299,792 13,783,085 14,153,385 13,401,132 15,324,431 Overpayment Recovery Costs (All Benefits) n/a n/a n/a 4,721,919 4,684,713 4,847,579
£ July August September October November December Total 1999 Tot no. new rec OP's in mth (IS) 22,256 19,434 21,918 21,816 23,987 16,483 269,158 Tot no. new rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) 50,313 44,899 51,163 50,637 55,658 35,992 595,815 Value of new rec OP's in mth (IS) 14,754,107 13,507,005 15,013,895 14,696,705 15,726,724 10,676,725 184,817,441 Value of new rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) 27,483,465 23,961,212 27,240,498 27,540,002 29,485,661 19,174,711 330,443,952 Tot no. new non-rec OP's in mth (IS) 19,561 18,013 18,523 15,086 20,114 14,800 234,354 Tot no. new non-rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) 37,545 37,923 38,717 36,393 39,742 29,602 477,143 Value of new non-rec OP's in mth (IS) 5,488,999 5,119,030 5,310,799 4,415,309 5,675,676 4,292,801 66,148,139 Value of new non-rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) 9,612,364 8,724,765 9,139,506 8,579,775 9,211,553 6,685,788 111,397,356 Value of Recoveries (IS) 9,304,915 9,567,507 8,181,140 8,760,770 10,220,253 9,212,062 111,223,423 Total Value of Recoveries (All Benefits) 13,946,991 14,123,303 14,227,108 13,900,466 15,273,343 13,292,234 165,155,434 Overpayment Recovery Costs (All Benefits) 4,787,460 5,494,698 4,502,158 4,886,722 5,538,471 5,222,073 44,685,793