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3 Feb 2009 : Column 1016W—continued
Post Office Card Account: Contracts
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what compensation he has agreed to pay to the unsuccessful bidders for the Post Office Card Account tendering process. [244564]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) on 10 December 2008, Official Report, column 105W.
Recovery from Estates Debt Management Unit
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was recovered by his Department’s Recovery from Estates Debt Management Unit in each year since 1997 for which information is available; and what the cost of running the Unit was in each such year. [249375]
Kitty Ussher: Recovery from Estates (RFE) is responsible for the recovery of overpaid benefit from the estates of deceased customers in England and Wales. This involves:
checking records of deceased customers against probate records and taking action to recover money incorrectly paid; and
recovering any overpayments that were outstanding on the death of a customer.
Overpayments made after death;
Official error overpayments
RFE recovery data is only available from 2003, costing data from 2005.
| Recovery | |
| RFE (£) | |
| Costs | |
| RFE (£ million) | |
Social Security Benefits: Disabled People
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what support is available through the benefits system to parents with disabled children between the ages of 16 and 18 to help them with childcare costs. [249346]
Kitty Ussher [holding answer 19 January 2009]: Jobcentre Plus pays childcare costs within the limits set under the child care element of the working tax credit, on behalf of parents who are claiming out of work benefits who have a disabled child.
For children in receipt of disability living allowance or who are registered blind, child care costs can be paid up to, but not including, the first Tuesday in the September following the child's 16th birthday.
Parents are eligible to claim the cost of registered child care when they are undertaking certain activities in connection with their search for work or when they are attending work focused training. To qualify for child care payments, all activities must be approved by a Jobcentre Plus adviser.
Parents can claim tax credit for a child who lives with them, up to 31 August after the 16th birthday. Child care costs can be claimed through the child care element for a disabled child until the last day in which 1 September falls, following the child's 16(th) birthday. The age limit is otherwise the child's 15th birthday.
The Aiming High for Disabled Children review found that more needed to be done to co-ordinate services for disabled young people in transition to adult life, and to ensure young people and families can access high quality information at key points. To address this the Government announced £19 million over the period 2008 to 2011 to develop a ‘Transition Support Programme’ for young disabled people, which will seek to raise the standards of transition support and provision and achieve greater consistency in all local areas.
Social Security Benefits: Overpayments
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people were subject to (a) a county court claim by his Department and (b) a county court judgement as a result of such a claim for repayments of overpayments of (i) jobseeker’s allowance, (ii) income support, (iii) incapacity benefit, (iv) carers allowance, (v) attendance allowance, (vi) pension credit and (vii) the state pension in each year since 1997; [249340]
(2) how many people have had items repossessed following default on repayments of overpayments of (a) jobseeker’s allowance, (b) income support, (c)
incapacity benefit, (d) carers allowance, (e) attendance allowance, (f) pension credit and (g) the state pension in each year since 1997; [249342]
(3) how many instances bailiffs have been used to recover repayments of overpayments of (a) jobseeker’s allowance, (b) income support, (c) incapacity benefit, (d) carers allowance, (e) attendance allowance, (f) pension credit and (g) the state pension in each year since 1997; [249344]
(4) how many bankruptcy orders have been issued against individuals following their default on repayments of overpayments of (a) jobseeker’s allowance, (b) income support, (c) incapacity benefit, (d) carers allowance, (e) attendance allowance, (f) pension credit and (g) the state pension in each year since 1997 for which information is available; [249373]
(5) in how many cases his Department has pursued repayment of overpayments of benefit following the death of a claimant through a county court claim in each of the last five years, broken down by benefit type. [249355]
Kitty Ussher: In cases where there is an overpayment of benefit outstanding, court action is only taken against those no longer receiving benefits. Such action is taken only should a voluntary arrangement not be possible, or if there is a default on that arrangement. The Department does not seek repossession of items in default cases, neither does the Department take bankruptcy action.
The information relating to the number of occasions bailiffs have been used is not available.
There are two types of actions the Department takes in county courts, depending on whether or not recovery is sought from an estate of a deceased customer.
1. Where recovery is sought from the person overpaid:
The action the Department takes in county courts to recover overpayments of benefit is to seek an Order for Recovery of Money Awarded by a Tribunal. This does not result in a county court judgment.
Between 2005 and 2008, no civil action in county courts was initiated by the Department in cases of this type. During this period, resources were concentrated on establishing the newly created Debt Management unit, with new processes, a new structure and new IT. This succeeded in increasing the total amount recovered from £180 million in 2005 to 2006, to just under £272 million in 2007 to 2008.
Some limited court action was taken by the Department’s private sector partners during this period. They obtained charging orders in nine high value overpayment cases.
The Department recommenced county court action in overpayment cases from January 2008, and during 2008 1,700 orders were sought from the court. Information relating to the breakdown between benefits is not available.
Information for the period prior to 2005 is not available.
2. Where recovery is sought from a n estate of a deceased customer:
In cases where there is an overpayment outstanding at a customer’s death, or where an overpayment is identified after death based on information that comes to light after death, such as undeclared occupational pensions or under declared savings, recovery is sought from the estate. In certain cases, where repayment is not made, the Department may take the executor to the county court on the basis of maladministration of the estate. Such actions can result in county court judgments.
The Department does not take action through the court to pursue recovery of overpayments arising as a result of a payment made directly into a bank account after death.
Details of the number of cases where county court action has been taken are in the table. We are not able to say how many resulted in county court judgments, or say which benefits they related to.
Information prior to April 2005 is not available.
| Number | |
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the monetary value was of repayments of overpayments requested by his Department following the death of a claimant in circumstances where such repayments were not mandatory under social security legislation and where the family members of the deceased claimants challenged the requests and did not subsequently make the repayments in each of the last five years, broken down by benefit type; [249353]
(2) what the monetary value was of repayments of overpayments of benefits requested by his Department following the death of a claimant, where such repayments were not mandatory under social security legislation in each of the last five years, broken down by benefit type; [249354]
(3) in how many cases overpayments of benefit have been reclaimed following the death of a claimant where such repayments were not mandatory under social security legislation in each of the last five years, broken down by benefit type; [249376]
(4) in how many cases his Department has not pursued requests for repayment of overpayments following the death of a claimant in circumstances where the repayment was challenged by family members and where the repayment was not mandatory under social security legislation in each of the last five years; [249377]
(5) in how many cases where his Department requested repayment of overpayments following the death of a claimant where such repayments were not mandatory under social security legislation, such requests were not challenged by family members in each of the last five years. [249378]
Kitty Ussher: Unfortunately, through no fault of any individual, overpayments of benefit can arise following the death of a benefit recipient. Such overpayments normally arise as a result of the Department being notified of the death too late to stop an automated payment being made into the deceased’s account.
We are doing all we can to improve the current process. We now receive electronic notifications of death from the Office for National Statistics on a daily basis. This will assist in enabling a prompt cessation of payments following death and reduce the number of these overpayments occurring.
The Department has a duty to seek recovery of all overpaid funds where it is reasonable and cost effective to do so. However, we seek to do this as sensitively as possible, taking account of the fact that this will be a stressful time, particularly if the person contacted is a
close friend or family member. Overpayments are written off if the deceased has no estate or there are insufficient funds in the estate.
The Department does not have records to answer all the questions in the format asked. However, we do have data on the value and volume of cases of overpayments where recovery has been made, and data on those that have been written off. The details are in the following tables.
Direct payments after death—debts written off. These data are only available from 2006, and by benefit only from 2007.
| Volume of cases | Value written off (£ million) | |
Write off by benefit for fiscal year 2007-08 is in the following table:
| Benefit type name | Count of transactions | Transaction amount (£) |
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