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17 Sep 2007 : Column 2316W—continued

Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) claimants with claim durations of more than 12 months
Quarter ending November	Number	Percentage
1997	385,620	29.2
1998	317,780	26.1
1999	260,635	23.8
2000	204,475	21.4
2001	161,130	18.3
2002	135,750	15.8
2003	130,435	15.5
2004	119,135	15.5
2005	120,060	14.3
2006	152,770	17.1
Notes: 1. Caseload figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. 2. Percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place. Source: 100 per cent. count of claimants of unemployment-related benefits, Jobcentre Plus Computer Systems.

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of disabled people receiving (a) disability living allowance, (b) severe disablement allowance, (c) housing benefit, (d) independent living fund, (e) incapacity benefit, (f) community care grant, (g) disabled facilities grant, (h) industrial injuries disablement benefit, (i) carers’ allowance and (j) income support. [153589]

Mrs. McGuire: The available information is in the following table.

17 Sep 2007 : Column 2317W

17 Sep 2007 : Column 2318W

Numbers of disabled people in receipt of benefits: GB
	Date	Claimants
Disability Living Allowance (DLA)	November 2006	2,845,750
Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA)	November 2006	273,190
Housing Benefit (HB) with Disability Premium	May 2004	946,000
Independent Living Fund (ILF)	July 2007	20,003
Incapacity Benefit (IB)	November 2006	2,441,030
Community Care Grant (CCG)	2005-06	95,910
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB)	September 2006	336,020
Carers’ Allowance (CA)	November 2006	458,930
Income Support (IS) with Disability Premium	November 2006	1,114,020
Notes: 1. IS figures exclude residual MIG claimants. 2. IS, SDA, IB, DLA, CA and IIDB figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and HB figures are rounded to the nearest thousand. 3. HB figures are based on one per cent samples and are subject to sampling variation while IS, SDA, IB, DLA, CA are based on 100 per cent. data. 4. HB data excludes any Extended Payment cases. 5. For HB and IS, disabled claimants have been defined as those in receipt of a disability premium. 6. Totals for DLA, CA and IIDB show the number of people in receipt of an allowance, and exclude people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital. 7. Community Care Grants are not on-going benefits but one-off payments. Some applicants may make more than one successful application during one year. 8. The initial decision on a Community Care Grant application may, at the applicant’s request, be reviewed by Jobcentre Plus and then possibly also by the Independent Review Service for the Social Fund. 9. Community Care Grant applications included those where: The applicant was disabled. The final decision was in 2005-06. (The final decision on an application is the initial decision if the application was not reviewed or the final review decision if the application went to review.) The application was successful (that is, an award was made either initially and/or on review). From these applications, the number of successful disabled applicants has been counted. 10. The figure for Community Care Grants has been rounded to the nearest 10. Sources: 1. 100 per cent. Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study. 2. Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System, Annual 1 per cent. sample. 3. Information Directorate 100 per cent. QSE data. 4. Independent Living Funds. 5. Scan of the Community Care Grant final decisions taken in 2005-06 and held on the Social Fund Computer System on 30 September 2006.

The Disabled Facilities Grant is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people of working age were (a) claiming out-of-work benefits, (b) claiming unemployment benefit, (c) lone parents claiming income support, (d) claiming incapacity benefit and (e) claiming any other out-of-work benefit in (i) May 1992, (ii) May 1997 and (iii) May 1999. [155082]

Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 10 September 2007]: The available information is in the following table.

Number of claimants of out-of-work benefits in Great Britain
	Quarter ending
	May 1992	May 1997	May 1999
Total claiming out of work benefits	n/a	5,442,700	5,033,100
Unemployed	2,592,600	1,556,000	1,220,300
Incapacity benefits	1,891,200	2,616,300	2,653,900
Income support lone parents	956,700	1,014,200	936,600
Other income support	n/a	256,200	222,300
n/a=figures not available Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100. 2. Figures constructed using NOMIS claimant count data, 5 per cent. and 1 per cent. sample data. 3. Incapacity benefit (IB) replaced invalidity benefit (IVB) and sickness benefit (SB) in April 1995. 4. All figures are GB (not seasonally adjusted), except jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) which is seasonally adjusted. 5. Incapacity benefits category is made up of IVB, SB and severe disability allowance (SDA) claimants for May 1992, and IB/SDA claimants thereafter. 6. Unemployed category is taken from the seasonally adjusted JSA claimant count for GB published by ONS. Time series data are available from www.nomisweb.co.uk. This 100 per cent. series is the most reliable and up-to-date source for claimant unemployment. 7. This table includes the main out-of-work client group categories, with the exception of carers who are not subject to activation policies in the same way as other groups. 8. This series consists of an earlier consistent series for caseload created by combining older information, available from the previously published 5 per cent. sample data, with the WPLS data. The series are published by DWP at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/tabtools/timeseriesIBSDA.xls and http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/tabtools/timeseriesIS.xls. 9. Figures contain a small number of overlap cases of Lone parents on income support who are also receiving incapacity benefits. 10. Figures exclude around 86,000 claimants in receipt of income support and carers allowance. Source: Department for Work and Pensions, Information Directorate, 5 per cent. sample scans of IS, IB, SDA, and seasonally adjusted count of unemployment-related benefits, Jobcentre Plus computer systems.

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Social Security Benefits: EC Nationals

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will break down by nationality the number of national insurance numbers issued to EU citizens since 1st January 2004. [151635]

Mr. Plaskitt: The available information is in the following table.

National insurance number registrations to EU citizens between 1 January 2004 and 5 April 2007.
	Number
Austria	4,640
Belgium	5,730
Bulgaria	12,440
Cyprus	3,070
Czech Rep	32,730
Denmark	7,230
Finland	4,330
France	55,130
Germany	42,200
Greece	10,720
Hungary	23,730
Italy	34,940
Luxembourg	220
Malta	1,810
Netherlands	24,060
Poland	460,780
Portugal	39,640
Rep of Estonia	6,900
Rep of Ireland	32,210
Rep of Latvia	32,230
Rep of Lithuania	72,230
Rep of Slovenia	1,880
Romania	11,730
Slovak Rep	68,220
All EU	1,038,470
Notes: 1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 3. Numbers are based on 100 per cent. data from the national insurance recording system (NIRS). Source: 100 per cent. sample at 14 May 2007 from the national insurance recording system (NIRS).

Social Security Benefits: Fraud

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was lost due to (a) benefit fraud and (b) error in the granting of benefits in each year since 1997. [150050]

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the cost of (a) fraud and (b) error in benefit payments administered by his Department in each year since 1997. [151634]

Mr. Plaskitt: Reliable estimates are not available from 1997-98 to 1999-2000. The available information is in the following table.

17 Sep 2007 : Column 2320W

Fraud and error in benefit payments
£ billion
	Fraud	Error
2000-01	2.2	1.1
2001-02	2.2	1.2
2002-03	1.8	1.3
2003-04	1.0	1.6
2004-05	0.8	1.7
2005-06	0.7	1.9
Notes: 1. The 2005-06 results in the table were first published as National Statistics in February 2007. However, the forthcoming DWP Resource Account will include a restatement of a previous estimate of 2005-06 overpayments, which will differ slightly from this estimate. The 2005-06 results are also being rebaselined, and an updated version will be published as National Statistics later in 2007. 2. From 2003-04 the methodology for estimating fraud and error changed, and pre 2003-04 estimates are not directly comparable with those since.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of fraudulent claims for (a) pension credit, (b) winter fuel payment, (c) attendance allowance, (d) disability living allowance, (e) carer's allowance, (f) housing benefit, (g) statutory sick pay, (h) incapacity benefit, (i) income support and (j) jobseeker's allowance in each year from 1997 to 2007. [152742]

Mr. Plaskitt: Estimates of fraud and error in income support, jobseeker's allowance, pension credit and housing benefit can be found in National Statistics reports, and additional tables on the Department's website at:

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