§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the number of persons fraudulently claiming jobseeker's allowance while working in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [104936]
§ Malcolm WicksWe estimate that, on average, during the year 2001–02, 32,000 people were committing fraud by claiming jobseeker's allowance while they or their partner were working. Corresponding estimates for previous years are not available.
Notes:
1. The above figure is the average number committing fraud at any one time during the year, and may therefore be compared to caseload figures. The total number of individuals committing the fraud over the year as a whole is likely to be considerably higher; however we do not have an estimate.
2. These are central estimates and are subject to sampling error.