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8 Nov 2006 : Column 1614W—continued
Benefits
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the level of overpayment of benefits by his Department was in each of the last eight years. [46155]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested is available only from the fiscal year 2000-01.
The overpayments of benefit identified over the last five years are in the following table. This is broken down between those that are recoverable under social security legislation, because of claimant error or fraud, and the total, which will include those overpayments that were not recoverable under social security legislation:
| £ million | ||
| Recoverable | Total | |
| (1) This represents 0.35 per cent. of total benefit expenditure. | ||
The Department initiated a programme in 2001 to bring increased focus to the management and recovery of benefit overpayments. This programme had delivered by 2005 a dedicated debt management organisation, with a new computer system rolled out by February 2006.
This has succeeded in heightening the profile of recovery of overpayments, particularly those arising through fraud or claimant error, which forms the majority of the overpayments that are identified, as shown in the table. As part of this increased profile, the Department now uses private sector companies to help recover debts where the Department's own recovery attempts have been unsuccessful. This reinforces the message that we are taking recovery of debt seriously.
In addition to the above, to help tackle error the Department has taken a three
1. Set up a dedicated Official Error Reduction Task Force with the specific aim of achieving demonstrable reductions in official error in short term by December 2006.
2. Established a dedicated benefit simplification team focused on exploring how the benefit system could be simplified.
3. Is developing a longer-term error reduction strategy which will set out medium and long term solutions to further improve benefit correctness.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average processing time for (a) housing benefit claims and (b) council tax benefit claims was in each of the last five years. [96179]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is in the following table.
| Average processing times | |||
| Days | |||
| Housing benefit | Council tax benefit | All claims | |
The time for each claim is measured from the day the claim is received by the local authority to the day a full decision on the claim is made. This includes non-working days and time taken to obtain further information.
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 1 February 2006, Official Report, column 590W, on benefits, which organisations (a) were in favour of and (b) opposed the simplification or reform of the housing benefit non-dependant deduction regime proposed in the housing green paper. [97002]
Mr. Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave him on 27 February 2006, Official Report, column 246W.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost of bereavement benefit was in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [100048]
Mr. Plaskitt: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many housing benefit claims were subject to each rate of non-dependant deduction in 2005-06; how many claimants in each rate lived in (a) council housing, (b) registered social landlord housing and (c) the private rented sector; and what percentage of total housing benefit claims each group represents. [96999]
Mr. Plaskitt: Information for 2005-06 is not available.
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of housing benefit claims were subject to a non-dependant deduction for which the claimant was (a) registered disabled, (b) over 60 years old, (c) in receipt of income support or job seeker’s allowance and (d) a lone parent in 2005-06. [97001]
Mr. Plaskitt: Information for 2005-06 is not yet available.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what housing benefit expenditure was in each local authority area in London in each of the last five years at 2006 prices. [99728]
Mr. Plaskitt: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average housing benefit payment was to households in temporary accommodation in each London local authority in each of the last five years. [99730]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what housing benefit expenditure was on households in temporary accommodation in each year since 1997. [99732]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is in the following tables.
| Housing benefit expenditure on households in temporary accommodation | |
| £ million (nominal) | |
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of existing inapacity benefit recipients he expects will receive Pathways to Work support by 2008; and if he will make a statement. [96116]
Mr. Jim Murphy: We are planning for Pathways to Work to be rolled out across the whole country from April 2008. In current Pathways to Work areas participation has been mandatory for new claimants since their inception. All claimants already on incapacity benefits have voluntary access to the support on offer where it is available; and by 2008 it will therefore be available to all incapacity benefit recipients.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the proportion of people in receipt of incapacity related benefits who are engaging in employment in breach of benefit rules; and if he will make a statement. [97460]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Redbridge and (b) Waltham Forest are in receipt of incapacity benefit; and how many of these people have been in receipt of incapacity benefit for (i) up to one year, (ii) one to two years, (iii) two to five years and (iv) over five years. [100434]
Mrs. McGuire: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of total claims for industrial injuries benefit were claimed in each category of injury and disablement in the last period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [99840]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The information is in the following table.
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