HC Deb 28 July 2000 vol 354 cc1071-2W
Mr. Burstow

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many Benefits Agency claimants were overpaid(a) benefit and (b) income support in each of the last 12 months; how many of these claimants have repaid that (i) benefit and (ii) income support in full; how much (x) benefit and (y) income support was overpaid in each of the last 12 months; how much of this (1) benefit and (2) income support was recovered from claimants; 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. [132286]

Angela Eagle

Administration of benefits and recovery of overpayments is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, Alexis Cleveland. She will write to the hon. Member shortly.

Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 27 July 2000: The Secretary of State has asked me to respond to your recent questions asking how many Benefits Agency claimants were overpaid (a) benefit and (b) income support in each of the last 12 months; how many of these claimants have repaid that (i) benefit and (ii) income support in full; how much (x) benefit and (y) income support was overpaid in each of the last 12 months; and how much of this (1) benefit and (2) income support was recovered from claimants; 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) and (II) income support in each of the last 12 months. We do not capture specific information on the number of claimants that have been overpaid or have repaid overpayments. The Benefits Agency pays out around £1 billion in Income Support and almost £7 billion in all benefits each month. Recoverable overpayments account for about 1.5 per cent. and 0.4 per cent. of the totals respectively. Non recoverable overpayments account for around 0.55 per cent. and 0.1 per cent. Recoveries are currently running at around two thirds of this total for income support and a half of total overpayments. The Agency spent £60 million recovering overpayments in the period June 1999 to May 2000. We do not keep information breaking this down by benefit or by the number of overpayments recovered. I hope this is helpful.