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10 Apr 2003 : Column 408W—continued

Benefit Overpayments

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much benefit has been overpaid in each of the last three years, broken down by type of benefit; and what the total amount of such overpaid benefit that was recovered was in each year, broken down by type of benefit. [88465]

Malcolm Wicks: As part of our strategy to reduce losses from fraud and error and improve the collection of debt, in April 2001 we established the Debt

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Management organisation within the Department. The key priorities of Debt Management include achieving an increase in overall recoveries and a long-term reduction in debt stocks, and improving the financial control of processes and the overall efficiency of debt organisation through the establishment of specialised Debt Centres.

The available information is in the tables.

Debt recorded and input to the Overpayment Recovery System by benefit£

	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02
Attendance Allowance	9,773,288.97	16,267,021.50	11,955,190.03
Invalid Care Allowance	11,222,521.23	11,359,424.18	8,180,199.74
Severe Disablement Allowance	1,507,316.88	1,497,590.03	1,204,289.58
Disability Living Allowance	11,022,462.65	13,959,427.62	10,330,301.50
Mobility Allowance	25,109.21	45,899.24	34,652.23
Disability Working Allowance	145,715.50	49,189.35	23,843.10
Industrial Injuries Benefit	233,451.94	335,067.25	393,750.38
Reduced Earnings Allowance	275,712.87	198,052.42	180,035.53
Industrial Injuries Death Benefit	53,678.91	64,507.42	133,907.19
Child Benefit	16,362,151.88	14,619,039.83	11,926,340.85
Family Credit	5,177,369.26	341,856.44	90,681 .85
Income Support	183,084,658.39	215,916,895.21	214,192,488.13
Supplementary Benefit	297,945.80	339,755.17	204,939.63
Pre 88 Housing Benefit	40,132.41	18,744.95	14,817.05
Other(16)	355,865.34	355,540.93	215,399.38
Jobseeker's Allowance—Income Based	27,716,465.66	27,227,901.08	21,908,398.26
Earnings Top Up	1,513.70	184.10	1,172.08
Retirement Pension	17,387,756.06	23,749,019.99	26,250,436.74
Incapacity Benefit	22,859,269.81	25,177,744.49	20,066,059.35
Unemployment Benefit	117,798.64	25,349.83	19,256.76
Widows Benefit	3,081,283.20	3,846,236.41	3,169,276.07
Sickness Benefit	97,354.31	67,323.16	31,810.16
Maternity Allowance	153,548.49	93,694.93	37,205.87
Guardians Allowance	160.00	2,127.80	2,842.85
Invalidity Benefit	942,978.38	623,498.52	369,246.77
Jobseeker's Allowance—Contributory	854,384.74	1,017,568.55	722,687.74
Total	312,789,894.23	357,198,660.40	331,659,228.82

⁽¹⁶⁾ 'Other' includes cases of obsolete benefits and cases where the overpayment benefit type is not identifiable, for example fraud cases where the debt has not been allocated to benefit.

Notes:

1. Amounts are calculated overpayments not estimated values of loss.

2. Figures relate primarily to recoverable debt, that is overpayments relating to customer error or fraud. Other debts recorded on the system, for example official error, are not recoverable under benefit legislation but recovery may be considered under common law.

Source:

Overpayments Recovery System

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Overpayment summary level recoveries 1999–2000 and 2000–01£ million

Financial year	Value of overpayment recoveries
1999–2000	184
2000–01	177
2001–02	188

Notes:

1. Summary level recovery information cannot be broken down by benefit type.

2. Data are based on recoveries shown on the Overpayments Recovery System and the Overpayment Recovery Computer System.

3. Recoveries do not necessarily relate to overpayments identified in the same year.

Source:

Programme Accounting Computer System and Financial and Management Information System

Benefits

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many residents of Hendon receive (a) job seekers allowance, (b) incapacity benefit, (c) disabled living allowance and (d) income support; and how many of those receiving income support are lone parents. [108237]

Mr. Nicholas Brown [holding answer 9 April 2003]: The latest figures available are in the table:

Benefit recipients in the Hendon constituency

Benefit	Number of claimants
Jobseeker's Allowance (17)	2,100
Incapacity Benefit (17)	1,600
Disability Living Allowance (18)	3,100
Income Support (all claimants) (17)	8,100
Income Support (Lone Parents) (17)	2,400

⁽¹⁷⁾ Figures for JSA, IB and IS are as at November 2002.

⁽¹⁸⁾ Figures for DLA are as at August 2002.

Notes:

1. The figures given are based on a five per cent. sample therefore subject to sampling variation.

2. Parliamentary Constituencies are allocated using the relevant ONS postcode directory and are based on May 1997 boundaries.

3. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.

4. JSA and IB figures exclude 'nil benefit' cases who claim National Insurance credits only.

5. Income Support Lone Parent claimants are defined as any live Income Support benefit unit where the claimant is under age 60,with dependents, and not in receipt of a disability premium.

6. IB figure will exclude a small number of clerically held cases.

Source:

Jobseeker's Allowance Quarterly Statistical Enquiry, November 2002.

IB—five per cent. sample of the Benefit computer system.DLA—IAD Information Centre five per cent. sample.

Income Support Quarterly Statistical Enquiry, November 2002.

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Child Support Agency

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) third party debt orders, (b) charging orders, (c) county court judgments, (d) levying of distress actions, (e) committal actions and (f) withdrawal of driving licence orders have been (i) sought and (ii) granted at the instance of the CSA in each year since 1997. [106243]

Malcolm Wicks: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Doug Smith to Annabelle Ewing, dated 8 April 2003:

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent

parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply

from the Chief Executive.

You ask how many (a) third party debt orders (b) charging orders (c) county court judgements (d) levying of distress actions (e) committal actions and (f) withdrawal of driving licence orders have been (i) sought and (ii) granted at the insistence of the Agency in each year since 1997.

The Agency does not collect or retain reliable information about the use made of different enforcement mechanisms or their relative effectiveness. This is one reason why, last year, I commissioned an internal review of our enforcement work. One outcome from that has been the establishment of a new enforcement management information package so that this information will be available for the future.

With that proviso, my best estimate of the use made of different enforcement mechanisms is as follows. You will note that I have not, for each, been able to establish reliable figures for "sought" and "granted".

Third party debt orders

Year to 31 March	Number
1997	340
1998	370
1999	1,150
2000	1,400
2001	1,500
2002	800
2003	950

Charging orders

Year to 31 March	Number
1997	70
1998	60
1999	70
2000	80
2001	250
2002	400
2003	700

County court judgments

Year to 31 March	Number
1997	300
1998	700
1999	500
2000	650
2001	600
2002	300
2003	550

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Levying of distress actions

Year to 31 March	Number
1997	800
1998	1,000
1999	2,000
2000	2,300
2001	1,600
2002	2,100
2003	2,400

Strictly the Agency does not seek either committal or the withdrawal of a driving licence. These are options available to a Magistrates Court. The number of cases we have taken in each year where the Magistrates choose committal are as follows:

Year to 31 March	Number
1997	0
1998	Figures not available
1999	33
2000	7
2001	22
2002	5
2003	16

The Magistrates chose to exercise the option of withdrawing a driving licence in two cases in the last year.

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many liability orders in Scotland have been (a) sought and (b) granted at the instance of the Child Support Agency in each year since 1997. [106244]

Malcolm Wicks: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Doug Smith to Annabelle Ewing, dated 8 April 2003:

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.

You ask how many liability orders in Scotland have been (a) sought and (b) granted at the insistence of the Child Support Agency in each year since 1997.

The Agency has not collected or retained information about the use made of different enforcement mechanisms or their relative effectiveness. This is one reason why, last year, I commissioned an internal review of our enforcement work. One outcome from that has been the establishment of a new enforcement management information package so that this type of information will be available for the future.

With that proviso, my best estimate of the number of liability orders obtained in Scotland is as follows:

Year to 31 March	Number
1998	260
1999	400
2000	700
2001	470
2002	200
2003	280

Clearly there will be a difference between the number "sought" and "granted" but, for the reason explained, I am unable to reliably establish that.

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