§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the margin of error for the inspection of fraud and error in each of the benefits inspected in the most recently published Area Benefit Review. [113629]
§ Mr. RookerThere is 95 per cent. confidence that the true figures for fraud and error for Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance in the most recently published Area Benefit Review report are within 8 per cent. of the estimates.
§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what steps he is taking to (i) measure accurately and (ii) reduce fraud and error in(a) invalid care allowance, (b) disability living allowance and (c) incapacity benefit; [113795]
(2) what was the monetary value of (i) official error, (ii) customer error, (iii) confirmed claimant fraud, (iv) high suspicion claimant fraud, (v) low suspicion claimant fraud, (vi) confirmed official fraud, (vii) high suspicion official fraud, (viii) low suspicion official fraud for (a) invalid care allowance, (b) disability living allowance and (c) incapacity benefit for each of the past three years. [113794]
§ Mr. RookerThe results of national benefit reviews carried out on Invalid Care Allowance (ICA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) were published in July 1996 and February 1997 respectively. These are the latest figures for fraud and error in these benefits and the reports are in the Library.
We plan to conduct a national benefit review of Incapacity Benefit later this year.
809WThere are security checks in place in these benefits to make sure that tackling fraud and error is an integral part of their administration. In addition there are a number of initiatives to promote greater security and accuracy in these benefits. Examples include:
From April, the ICA payment order book, normally valid for 22 weeks, will be aligned to the length of time for which a qualifying benefit is in payment where that is shorter than 22 weeks.From April, Automated Credit Transfer will be introduced for ICA customers receiving Income Support or Jobseeker's Allowance (Income Based).For DLA, work being undertaken within the Disability Benefits Modernisation Programme which is focused on getting benefit entitlement right at the outset and keeping it right from first to final payment.
§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) which ministers are currently in the Ministerial counter-fraud group; [113620]
(2) how many times the Ministerial counter-fraud group (a) has met since it was formed and (b) met in 1999. [113621]
§ Mr. RookerInformation relating to the proceedings of Cabinet or Cabinet Committees is not made public under exemption 2 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government.
§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what evaluations his Department has conducted of the use of biometric data as a means by which to reduce benefit fraud. [113793]
§ Mr. RookerThis Department already makes use of biometric data in certain exceptional circumstances. The War Pensions Agency use fingerprinting in overseas cases where they suspect that a pensioner or widow is no longer alive and a pension is still in payment. The Child Support Agency use DNA testing to confirm paternity, where the alleged non-resident parent has contacted the Agency to dispute that they are the father.
There are problems with biometric technology, such as the absence of 100 per cent. reliable tests to establish whether an individual matches his record in the database. Such failure rates would clearly be unacceptable from a Social Security customer service standpoint. Until we see advances in the biometric technology particularly in terms of reliability, but also in ease of use and cost we must continue to rely on other authentication techniques for bulk day to day business.
We will continue to monitor progress on the reliability of using biometric data to reduce benefit fraud.
§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps his Department is taking to eradicate fraudulent housing benefit claims by landlords. [113792]
810W
§ Angela EagleWe have already introduced a range of approaches to tackle landlord fraud which we are continuing to develop;
we are already involved in very successful joint activities between the Benefits Agency (BA), local authorities (LAs) and the police which are getting positive results;we have given LAs new powers to control direct payments more tightly and recover overpayments more easily, and to require landlords to provide information;we are involved in matching exercises with Inland Revenue (IR) of landlords and savings;we have established an agreement with IR to allow BA and LA fraud investigators to ask centrally for tax information on a case by case basis.We are setting up a new national benefits intelligence unit to co-ordinate and extend intelligence on Social Security fraud, as the basis for both prevention and detection;overhauling and strengthening the capability and professionalism of investigators to tackle organised benefit fraud right across the benefit system. A senior civil servant will be appointed to manage the central organised fraud investigation service and to act as the Head of Profession for all benefit fraud investigators;setting up new arrangements with local authorities to ensure investigations are targeted properly across the Social Security system.