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23 Mar 2007 : Column 1174W—continued
The available information regarding the number of people who have been successfully prosecuted for fraud as a result of evidence from the online report-a-thief form in each year are in the following table.
| Convictions arising from completion of the DWP online report-a-thief form | |
| Number | |
| Note: 1. Information is only available from April 2000. | |
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were prosecuted as a result of evidence obtained from callers using the benefit theft hotline in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [124708]
Mr. Plaskitt: Between 1 February 2006 and 31 January 2007 there were 608 people prosecuted as a result of evidence obtained from callers using the national benefit fraud hotline.
Note:
The figures relate to prosecutions carried out between the dates given. They do not relate to calls made during that time. Cases where a call to the National Benefit Fraud Hotline has not yet led to a prosecution are not included.
Source:
Fraud Information by Sector
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many callers used the benefit fraud hotline in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available. [124737]
Mr. Plaskitt: The current telephony system does not identify the number of unique callers. Many customers call the hotline more than once to check progress or to report additional information.
Information regarding the number of calls answered is in the following table.
Community Care Grants
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of applications for community care grants took (a) less than two weeks, (b) two to four weeks, (c) four to six weeks and (d) over six weeks in the last year for which figures are available. [124910]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested is in the following table.
| Community care grant applications cleared in 2005-06 in Great Britain | ||
| Working days to clear | Number | Percentage |
| Notes: 1. The clearance time for an individual application is measured in whole working days from the date of receipt of the application to the date of the decision, inclusive. 2. Numbers are based on applications cleared in the most recent financial year, not on applications received during that year. 3. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100 and percentages to the nearest 0.1 per cent. (apart from the total). Source: DWP Social Fund Policy, Budget and Management Information System. | ||
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applications for community care grants were (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available. [124911]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the following table.
Customer Overpayment Debt
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many individual cases of customer overpayment debt there have been in each year since 1997; what the total value was of customer overpayment debts in this period; what proportion of such debts are over 10 years old; and what the cost was of administering these debts. [106615]
Mr. Plaskitt: Our error reduction strategy “Getting Welfare Right: Tackling Error in the Benefits System”, was published on 24 January 2007. This first ever, ambitious strategy on error reduction is based on prevention, compliance and correction—preventing new error, ensuring that customers and staff comply with benefit rules and identifying/correcting existing errors.
The strategy will save £1 billion over the five years to 2012.
The information is only available from the fiscal year 2000-01.
Details of individual customer overpayments identified are in the following table.
| New debts | ||||
| Customer error overpayments identified | Official error and small overpayments identified | |||
| Volume | Value (£ million) | Volume | Estimated value (£ million) | |
The proportion of cases in the debt stock over 10 years old is not available.
Information on the cost of administering the above debt separately to the Department's other debt recovery operations is not available.
Eligible Loans Deduction Scheme
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost to his Department has been of developing the Eligible Loans Deduction Scheme. [118808]
Mr. Plaskitt: The projected total expenditure for implementation and running costs for the three-year period 2005 to 2008 is £2.246 million.
Employment Schemes
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many participants there were in Employment Zone programmes for each month since April 2000; how many of those had previously engaged with Employment Zone programmes; how many found work; and how many had previously participated in the New Deal for Young People. [125901]
Mr. Jim Murphy [holding answer 7 March 2007]: Since April 2000, 75,000 people have gained a job through Employment Zones.
Of the 154,820 people who have entered the Employment Zone programme, 29,290 had previously participated in the new deal for young people.
Information on participants in Employment Zones for each month, and the number of those who had previously engaged with Employment Zone programmes is in the following table.
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