§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many instances there were of housing benefit fraud, broken down by local authority in England, in each year since 1997. [42236]
§ Malcolm WicksThe information available is based on local authorities' reported Weekly Benefit Savings (WBS) where fraud has been established. This information has been placed in the Library.
Tightening of the WBS criteria in 1998 was followed by a large reduction in the WBS achieved 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 over 2 years from April 2001 with a new anti-fraud incentive scheme that gives greater financial rewards to local authorities for preventing and detecting overpayments and for punishing fraud. Since April this year all local authorities have been operating the new scheme.