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Benefits
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what estimate he has made of the annual administrative costs of recovering unpaid (a) benefit and (b) income support per claimant; and how much was spent by the Benefits Agency recovering overpaid (i) benefit and (ii) income support in each of the last 12 months; [108644]
- (2) how many Benefits Agency claimants were overpaid (a) benefit and (b) income support in each of the last 12 months; and how many of these claimants have repaid that (i) benefit and (ii) income support in full; [108643]
(3) what is his policy in respect of recovering overpaid benefit from claimants overpaid by (a) over £5.00 and (b) under £5.00; [108645]
(4) how much (a) benefit and (b) income support was overpaid in each of the last 12 months; and how much of this (i) benefit and (ii) income support was recovered from claimants; [108642]
(5) what methods are used by the Benefits Agency to recover overpaid benefit from claimants who do not repay such benefit voluntarily; and in what percentage of overpayment cases these methods are used. [108646]
Angela Eagle [pursuant to her reply, 7 February 2000, c. 60-62W]: Administration of benefits and recovery of overpayments is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, Peter Mathison. He will write to the hon. Member.
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Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 17 February 2000:
- I am writing pursuant to Mark Fisher's letter of 4 February 2000 in response to your Parliamentary Questions about overpaid benefits.
- I am afraid that some of the statistics in the table attached to Mr. Fisher's letter were incorrect.
- I would be grateful if you would accept my apologies for the error, and find an amended reply attached.
Amended reply from Peter Mathison to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 17 February 2000:
- The Secretary of State has asked me to respond to your recent questions about overpaid benefits.
- The Benefits Agency (BA) aims to obtain the recovery of overpayments as quickly and efficiently as possible by the most cost-effective method, without causing hardship, and in accordance with Government Accounting and Departmental Policy.
- The BA spent £44m on recovering overpayments in the period April to December 1999. A monthly breakdown of this figure is set out in the attached appendix. Some of the information is not available in the format requested. For example, the BA does not break this down by benefit or by the number of overpayments recovered. Prior to April 1999, the BA did not separately identify costs relating purely to overpayment recovery across the whole BA.
- The BA captures information on the value of recoveries made. The number of overpayments arising during 1998-99 totalled just over one million, and 707,000 have been raised so far this year. A monthly breakdown of the recovery figures for the last 12 months is attached, they also provide a breakdown showing Income Support (IS) and all benefits (including IS) as you have requested.
- The BA does not normally seek repayment of overpayments less than £25. This is based on cost-effectiveness and in line with Government Accounting. However, there may be occasions when this is not adhered to, for example, when the overpayment has been quickly identified and the sum to be recovered is still likely to be held by the claimant and easily recoverable.
- The BA recovers overpayments by deductions from ongoing benefits, instalments, by a lump sum, or by civil proceedings. Typically, the BA will firstly invite repayment and in the vast majority of cases, recovery is implemented by mutual agreement between the debtor and the BA.
- Where the debtor remains in receipt of benefit and is not in a position to repay the overpayment immediately, recovery is normally pursued by deduction from ongoing benefit entitlement. This deduction can also be imposed compulsorily if no offer of repayment is forthcoming. Deductions from benefit, whether voluntary or compulsory, account for 74% of the overpayments currently being recovered.
- Where customers are not in receipt of any benefit, repayments will be expected. A person's failure to respond to an invitation to repay (or making an unreasonable offer) could lead the BA to consider seeking recovery through a civil action. The threshold for acceptance for civil action is currently £150. There is a six year time limit on proceedings.
- 6.5% of overpayments currently being recovered have been subject to civil proceedings. The remaining are being recovered by other voluntary arrangements.
- Policy on civil proceedings to recover overpayments is that litigation is not pursued where the debtor remains in receipt of benefit. For those not in receipt of benefit, litigation is pursued as a last resort where voluntary arrangements are unsuccessful or break down.
- Recovery procedures follow guidance as provided in Government Accounting, where the recovery is likely to be detrimental to the health and/or welfare of the debtor or a member of their family, the Secretary of State has the power to exercise discretion and abandon recovery.
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- Recovery of an overpayment arising as a result of an official error is pursued if the overpayment is identified quickly and it is reasonable to expect the customer to have been aware of the overpayment. Duplicate payments are classed as over provisions of
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- benefit and are recoverable under common law. The Secretary of State has a duty to seek recovery of such overpayments where it is cost effective to do so.
- I hope this is helpful.
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| £ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | February | March | April | May | June | |
| 1999 | ||||||
| Tot no. new rec OP's in mth (IS) | 27,123 | 26,639 | 30,777 | 18,567 | 18,281 | 21,877 |
| Tot no. new rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) | 52,561 | 53,199 | 60,183 | 45,342 | 44,082 | 51,786 |
| Value of new rec OP's in mth (IS) | 18,796,579 | 18,737,449 | 22,131,924 | 13,447,701 | 12,600,292 | 14,728,335 |
| Value of new rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) | 32,178,016 | 32,018,594 | 35,228,960 | 24,723,691 | 24,373,316 | 27,035,826 |
| Tot no. new non-rec OP's in mth (IS) | 20,339 | 22,045 | 24,800 | 17,554 | 19,761 | 23,758 |
| Tot no. new non-rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) | 43,143 | 45,749 | 46,818 | 37,040 | 39,214 | 45,257 |
| Value of new non-rec OP's in mth (IS) | 5,591,053 | 6,182,900 | 6,961,243 | 4,987,801 | 5,457,898 | 6,664,630 |
| Value of new non-rec OP's in mth (All Benefits) | 10,089,015 | 10,436,679 | 10,393,257 | 8,644,667 | 9,109,519 | 10,770,468 |
| Value of Recoveries (IS) | 8,418,487 | 8,969,871 | 9,893,388 | 9,285,188 | 9,003,896 | 10,405,948 |
| Total Value of Recoveries (All Benefits) | 11,430,165 | 12,299,792 | 13,783,085 | 14,153,385 | 13,401,132 | 15,324,431 |
| Overpayment Recovery Costs (All Benefits) | n/a | n/a | n/a | 4,721,919 | 4,684,713 | 4,847,579 |
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CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
Advertising Budgets
Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what is his Department's advertising budget for (a) 1999-2000 and (b) 2000-01. [110255]
Mr. Chris Smith [holding answer 16 February 2000]: The only advertising undertaken by my Department this year has been to attract candidates for the many public appointments for which I am responsible. The budget for this is £130,000. The budget for 2000-01 has not yet been allocated.
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