HC Deb 10 April 2002 vol 383 cc234-5W
Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which local authorities have not sent information requested or expected by the Department relating to housing benefit administration in 2001; on which occasions figures have been estimated for non-responding local authorities; and what action the Department takes against non-responding local authorities. [41784]

Malcolm Wicks

At present information is provided on a voluntary basis by local authorities. We have reminded all authorities of the importance of providing management information.

Estimates have been made by the Department in respect of non-responding local authorities or missing information since 1994–95 for annual returns and since 1996–97 for quarterly returns.

Information on the number of local authorities who have failed to submit management information returns to the Department in 2000–01 has been placed in the Library.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to reform subsidies to local authorities for housing benefit administration so they become performance related. [42255]

Malcolm Wicks

We have already increased housing benefit administration subsidy for the year 2001–02 to £166 million, in 2002–03 it will increase to £170 million and to £174 million in 2003–04. This three-year settlement provides local authorities with stability, enabling them to plan more effectively for the future administration of housing benefit and council tax benefit.

As part of our drive to improve local authority performance in delivering housing benefit, we are developing a set of performance standards for effective and secure administration.

Local authorities will be able to self assess their performance against challenging standards that go beyond the core measures of speed, accuracy and basic security and address wider issues—customer service, housing need and anti-poverty objectives.

In April 2001 we launched a new anti-fraud incentive scheme which means that local authorities who uncover more fraud and prosecute fraudsters can expect to receive greater financial reward than before. 63 authorities are currently on the scheme, the rest will join in April 2002. The scheme offers additional reward to those authorities who operate the Verification Framework.

For the future, we are looking at how we can use performance assessments to target help and support to authorities that need it most.