Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 32920, what processes his Department uses to collect information on allegations of fraudulent benefit claims; and what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of those processes.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
There are a variety of ways that allegations of Benefit Fraud are collected and received by the DWP including telephone calls to the National Benefit Fraud Hotline, online and Letter and Data matching. Once an allegation has been received and, if it meets the required criteria containing enough information, a Fraud Referral Form is completed which is then entered into the internal Fraud Referral and Information Management System.
The effectiveness of these processes is measured by statistics produced and published in May each year and made available in the public domain. These statistics are used to evaluate, develop and support fraud and error policy, strategy and operational decisions.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in how many individual cases the NHS received payment from insurance companies for the costs associated with the treatment of customers who were involved in road traffic accidents in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland in each year since 2010.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The table below is for Great Britain only since information regarding Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland. Accurate and robust data can only be provided from 2012 due to system archiving in line with our departmental records management policy. Please note the breakdown of figures you have requested is derived from operational processes and systems. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. It may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.
|
| Country | |||
Financial Year | Data | ENGLAND | WALES | SCOTLAND | Total |
2012 - 2013 | Number of Cases | 143,451 | 12,071 | 9,536 | 165,058 |
| Amount Recovered | £135,898,125 | £9,894,685 | £9,872,118 | £155,664,927 |
2013 - 2014 | Number of Cases | 131,196 | 10,807 | 9,042 | 151,045 |
| Amount Recovered | £133,803,563 | £9,312,992 | £9,884,527 | £153,001,081 |
2014 - 2015 | Number of Cases | 113,462 | 8,871 | 8,975 | 131,308 |
| Amount Recovered | £121,074,583 | £8,305,619 | £9,816,385 | £139,196,587 |
2015 - 2016 | Number of Cases | 104,785 | 8,079 | 8,628 | 121,492 |
| Amount Recovered | £111,746,264 | £7,549,742 | £9,544,194 | £128,840,200 |
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much the NHS Injury Cost Recovery scheme successfully claimed back by charging insurance companies for the costs associated with the treatment of customers who were involved in road traffic accidents in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland in each year since 2010.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The table below is for Great Britain only since information regarding Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland. Accurate and robust data can only be provided from 2012 due to system archiving in line with our departmental records management policy. Please note the breakdown of figures you have requested is derived from operational processes and systems. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. It may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.
|
| Country | |||
Financial Year | Data | ENGLAND | WALES | SCOTLAND | Total |
2012 - 2013 | Number of Cases | 143,451 | 12,071 | 9,536 | 165,058 |
| Amount Recovered | £135,898,125 | £9,894,685 | £9,872,118 | £155,664,927 |
2013 - 2014 | Number of Cases | 131,196 | 10,807 | 9,042 | 151,045 |
| Amount Recovered | £133,803,563 | £9,312,992 | £9,884,527 | £153,001,081 |
2014 - 2015 | Number of Cases | 113,462 | 8,871 | 8,975 | 131,308 |
| Amount Recovered | £121,074,583 | £8,305,619 | £9,816,385 | £139,196,587 |
2015 - 2016 | Number of Cases | 104,785 | 8,079 | 8,628 | 121,492 |
| Amount Recovered | £111,746,264 | £7,549,742 | £9,544,194 | £128,840,200 |
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 32920, where the allegations of fraudulent benefit claims are collected.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
There are a variety of ways that allegations of Benefit Fraud are received by the DWP including telephone calls to the National Benefit Fraud Hotline (NBFH), online and letter. Once an allegation has been received and, if it meets the required criteria containing enough information, a Fraud Referral Form (FRF) is completed which is then entered into the internal Fraud Referral and Information Management System (FRAIMS).
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a dedicated Deaf and Disability Careers Advisory Service.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have responsibility for the National Careers service, which provides free, up to date, impartial information and advice and guidance on careers, skills and the labour market in England. It is delivered by around 1,400 careers advisers trained and qualified to level 3 and above in providing tailored careers information, advice and guidance.
DWP is also committed to supporting deaf and disabled people into employment. For example, we are spending more on Access to Work to extend it to more people. 5,580 people whose primary medical condition is listed as ‘Deaf and hard of hearing’ were helped by Access to Work in the period 2014/15. We are also increasing the number of Disability Employment Advisors in Jobcentres by over 60 per cent to provide specialist and local expertise. Moreover, we will be investing £330m over 2017-2021 in providing additional employment support for individuals in the Work-Related Activity Group of employment support allowance.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many allegations of fraudulent benefit claims have been reported by members of the public in each year since 2010; and by what means such allegations were reported.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many allegations of fraudulent benefit claims made by members of the public led to (a) benefits being stopped and (b) prosecutions in each of the last five years.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect on jobseeker's allowance claimants taking up volunteer work of the requirement for them to spend 35 hours each week searching for work; and whether that assessment was conducted prior to implementation of that policy.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
There is no requirement for Jobseekers Allowance claimants to undertake 35 hours of job search a week. Claimants must however be actively seeking work in each week of their claim. This means they are expected to do all that they reasonably can to give them the best prospects of securing employment.
We recognise the benefits that volunteering can offer in enhancing a claimant’s prospects of finding suitable employment. Time spent volunteering may therefore be taken into account when considering whether a person has taken all appropriate steps to actively seek work each week.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to monitor the ongoing effect of changes to employment and support allowance on people with disabilities.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The Department is committed to monitoring the impacts of its policies. We will monitor the impact of the ESA WRAC change through regular national statistics.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average financial cost is to an individual woman who has seen her state pension age increased by the maximum 18 months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Women born between 6 December 1953 and 5 October 1954 will have their state pension age increased by the maximum 18 months.
It is not possible to assess the income of every individual due to their differing characteristics. The impact on a small number of hypothetical cases was modelled for the 2011 Pensions Act Impact Assessment.
These show how women born in 1954, affected by the maximum 18 months increase, could see their total state and private pension income change, compared to the previously legislated timetable.
Women who continue to work will also receive additional income from employment. It may also be possible for women to receive other working age benefits.
The impacts can be found in Table 8 of Annex A of the Impact Assessment at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pensions-act-2011-impact-assessment
The Department published analysis on the impact of the new State Pension (nSP) in January 2016 showing that three million women gain on average over £11pw extra State Pension by 2030:
On average women will still receive 10% more new State Pension than men over their lifetime.
The change in State Pension age is designed to equalise State Pension age between men and women and to remove a long standing inequality, while the new State Pension improves outcomes for women, bringing forward by a decade the point at which women have equivalent State Pension outcomes to men (by the early 2040s instead of the early-2050s).