§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the National Audit Office's comments in the Appropriation Accounts, HC335, on the fall in WBS subsidies during 2000–01; and whether the Department intends to revise the weekly benefits savings rules. [42512]
§ Malcolm WicksThe Weekly Benefit Savings (WBS) scheme was introduced in April 1993 to encourage Local Authorities to undertake activity to combat benefit fraud. It is based on a system of rewards and penalties for the amount of fraud detected.
Changes were made to the scheme in 1998 following concerns from the National Audit Office and Audit Commission that WBS was being inappropriately claimed in cases where fraud had not been established or a fraud investigation had not been properly undertaken. It was therefore decided to tighten the WBS claiming criteria and limit the amount of WBS claimed in certain circumstances.
This tightening of the criteria was followed by a large reduction in the WBS savings scored by Local Authorities in 1998–99 and 1999–2000. To address this, increased rates of additional subsidy were made payable to Local Authorities and a reduced level of penalty was introduced in April 1999.
In January 2000 the Department announced that it would replace WBS with a new anti-fraud incentive scheme over two years from April 2001. Sixty three Local Authorities took up the new scheme in 2001–02 with the remainder joining in April 2002.