| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Departmental IT Projects
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the information technology projects being undertaken by his Department and agencies responsible to his Department, including (a) the start date, (b) the planned completion date, (c) the current expected completion date, (d) the planned cost and (e) the current estimated cost; and if he will make a statement. [99628]
Angela Eagle: The information is not available in the format requested. The information that is available is in the table.
The projects listed are those currently being undertaken by the Department where the IT cost exceeds £5 million. Also listed are lesser value projects with an IT content that are deemed to be critical to the Department's business.
6 Dec 1999 : Column: 369W
(6) The planned Departmental cost is now £43.2 million. This is within the cost tolerance set by Treasury at +/- 5 per cent. or £1 million.
(7) "Site backbone" is the name given to the network components, hardware and software which provide high-speed volume connections between individual elements of the Departmental sites and into the Wide Area Networks linking the sites.
(8) Business case not yet approved.
(9) While this Department is funding the project, the IT is being provided by the Inland Revenue contract with EDS and their contract with NIRS2.
(10) This is also a procurement project.
(11) Not yet quantifiable; business case currently under development.
(12) Business case not yet approved. Costs likely to be in excess of £50 million.
(13) Ongoing--end date not known
(14) Latest
(15) "*" denotes projects with IT cost exceeding £5 million
6 Dec 1999 : Column: 371W
6 Dec 1999 : Column: 371W
Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list all the social security helplines, with the number of calls received over the latest 12 month period. [99914]
| Enquiry line | Number of calls |
|---|---|
| Benefit Enquiry Line | 1,200,000 |
| CSA National Enquiry Line | 2,857,171 |
| DLA Helpline | 5,094,316 |
| Family Credit Helpline | 3,546,876 |
| Pensions Direct | 751,063 |
| Disabled Person's Tax Credit Information Helpline | 98,756 |
| Overseas Telephone Liaison | (16)-- |
| Child Benefit Enquiry Line | 2,174,715 |
| War Pensions Helpline | 551,767 |
| Winter Fuel Helpline | 200,847 |
| CSA Client Helpline | 2,919,626 |
| Total | 19,395,137 |
(16) Figure unavailable
Housing Benefit Fraud
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to ensure that local authorities carry out adequate checks on housing benefit claimants in order to reduce the amount of bogus claims. [101419]
Mr. Rooker:
We inherited a flawed system which placed far too much emphasis on the detection of fraud once it had occurred. Working in partnership with local authorities, we are transforming the delivery of Housing Benefit by emphasising the importance of getting it right to begin with and keeping it right during the life of a claim.
6 Dec 1999 : Column: 372W
We are financing local authorities to focus on both the prevention and detection of fraud with the introduction of the Verification Framework. The Framework specifies the evidence which must be verified before a claim can be paid and sets out the checks which must be made during the life of a claim. We have made £100 million available to allow all local authorities to implement this important new initiative. So far, we have funded the implementation of the Framework in 223 local authorities. We want all local authorities to adopt the high standards set by the Framework and we have embarked on a programme to increase its take up, particularly among the highest spending authorities.
From 6 September 1999, with the application of Section 19 of the Fraud Act, all new claims for Housing Benefit are subject to tough new identity checks to ensure that all claimants can be linked with the appropriate National Insurance number.
As part of our strategy to ensure that local authorities have in place arrangements for the secure and accurate administration of Housing Benefit, we have instructed the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate to focus their attention on the 30 largest local authorities who between them account for almost a third of the total expenditure on Housing and Council Tax Benefit. These authorities will have been inspected or revisited by the summer of next year and a report will be published with recommendations on each authority which we will follow up. This will allow us to measure their progress in the fight against fraud.
We have also made good progress in preventing the significant amount of fraud which occurs when fraudsters make false claims and then redirect benefit mail from addresses at which they are not resident. The Royal Mail Do Not Redirect scheme was introduced nationally from 1 February this year and will stop the redirection of appropriately marked benefit mail. To date, over 200 local authorities have taken up this initiative and we are aiming that all authorities will adopt this service.
6 Dec 1999 : Column: 373W
Mr. Jim Murphy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many families were officially living in poverty (a) in each of the past 20 years, (b) on 1 May 1997 and (c) on the most recent date available. [101309]
Mr. Bayley:
Poverty and social exclusion are complex multi-dimensional issues, affecting many aspects of people's lives; their income, health, housing, the quality of the environment, opportunities to work and to learn. There is no single measure which can capture the complex problems which need to be overcome.
We are determined to tackle the problems that condemn many individual and communities to poverty. That is why we set out our strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion in our first annual report "Opportunity for all" (Cm 4445). The report includes a range of indicators that capture many of the aspects of poverty and social exclusion.
Information on the indicators, including definitions and baseline data, was placed in the Library on 21 September to accompany "Opportunity for all". One of the indicators monitors the proportion of people living in low income households. Further information on low income statistics are published (annually in recent years) in Households Below Average Income (HBAI). The results can be found in the HBAI publication for the relevant year in the Library.
6 Dec 1999 : Column: 374W
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |