§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 4 April 2000,Official Report, column 447W. on benefit overpayments, if he will estimate, in relation to the overpayments which took place on 17 and 18 January, the total (a) value of the benefits recovered so far, (b) number of customers who have repaid the overpayment in full and (c) number of customers who have paid none of the overpayment; and if he will estimate the total cost in administration and in unreturned benefit of the overpayment. [132360]
§ Angela EagleAdministration of benefits and recovery of overpayments is matter for the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, Alexis Cleveland. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 25 July 2000:
The Secretary of State has asked me to respond to your recent question asking pursuant to his Answer of 5th April, Official Report, column 447W, on benefit overpayments, if he will estimate, in relation to the overpayments which took place on 17th and 18th January, (a) the total value of the benefits recovered so far, (b) the total number of customers who have repaid the overpayment in full and (c) the total number of customers who have paid none of the overpayment; and if he will estimate the total cost in administration and in unreturned benefit of the overpayment.The problem was caused by an incomplete file being erroneously passed to the Bankers Automated Credit Service for payment on 17th January, compounded by the correct file being reprocessed for payment on 18th January.On 17th January 112,000 customers correctly received a payment into their bank accounts, while 60.000 customers did not receive the payment which was due. The following day, the same 112,000 customers received a duplicate of the payments into their accounts, while 60,000 received their payment a day late. The value of the duplicate payments amounts to £10.5million.£7,311,107 has currently been repaid.The information relating to the total number of customers who have repaid the overpayment in full, and the total who have paid nothing can only be obtained at disproportionate cost. It is however, estimated that over 68,000 have repaid in full, with a further 4,500 in the process of repaying. The balance approximately 39,000 have either not been pursued due to the small amount involved, or have refused to repay or have not responded to requests for repayment.The estimated cost of administration is approximately £430,000, and the total currently unrecovered is approximately £3.2million.I hope this is helpful.