Benefit Fraud (Hansard, 21 March 2002)

§ Malcolm Wicks

The Benefit Fraud Inspectorate's report on the city of Salford council was published today and copies of the report have been placed in the Library.

The report finds the city of Salford council to be a poorly performing authority in almost all aspects of benefits administration and counter fraud activity.

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BFI reports finding evidence of good policies and procedures, but these were undermined by inadequate implementation or monitoring. For example, a benefit take-up policy existed but there was limited evidence of implementation.

The report identifies a range of examples of poor administration. This includes an inadequate management checking regime, poor standards for verifying claims for benefit, and failure to process all new claims within 14 days of receiving all the necessary information.

Procedures for dealing with changes to claimants' circumstances were found to be flawed and a failure to apply the law was likely to lead to over and underpayments of benefit.

The council had no policy on overpayments. The lack of quality management information and a lack of managerial or supervisory involvement contribute to poor overpayment recovery. In March 2000 the council's recorded overpayment debt stood at almost £5 million and was rising year on year.

While the city of Salford council had a positive counter fraud strategy and had provided officers with a good procedures manual, investigation quality was found to be inadequate. There was no control over investigations, nor over the workload of each investigator which was found to be excessive.

The report makes recommendations to help the council address weaknesses and to improve the administration of housing benefit and council tax benefit, as well as counter fraud activities.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is now considering the report and will be asking the council for its proposals in response to the findings and recommendations of the BFI.