Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Greg Hands (Conservative). It was answered by Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour) on Monday, 23 April 2007 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Income Support Fraud

Question: What plans his Department has to strengthen its mechanisms for tackling income support fraud.

Answer: In October 2005, we published new proposals for reducing benefit fraud. Fraud in income support is now at the lowest level since figures were recorded: down from an estimated £550 million in 1997-98 to around £200 million in 2005-06. That equates to a drop from 6.7 per cent of income support expenditure to 2.1 per cent. We are determined to make further reductions in fraud, for example, by trying new data-matching initiatives with credit reference agencies.

Secondary information