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Social Security Benefits: Overpayments

Answer

The information is only available in the requested format for those benefits administered by the Department for Work and Pensions. Housing Benefit is administered by local authorities and is not available in the same format.The information is only available from 2001, and the data is rounded to the nearest £1 million where appropriate.Overpayments in category (iii) above, Income support and Jobseeker's Allowance combined, are not recorded as a separate entity and data relating to those overpayments will be included in the benefit specific data.Prior to April 2006, not all overpayments arising due to official error were formally calculated and recorded. Under an agreement with HM Treasury, known as Easements, these, along with small value overpayments not considered cost effective to pursue, were recorded separately on the basis of estimated values. The value recorded in the easements initiative in shown for each year—although this is not broken down by benefit.Prior to 2005-06 overpayments identified by the Recovery from Estates Unit were recorded separately. (The unit is responsible for the recovery of overpaid means tested benefits identified after death following check of probate records.) Unfortunately, these cannot be broken down by benefit.Otherwise, the data supplied is based on actual values of official error and customer error detected and recorded by the Department.The Department also publishes estimates of overpayments in the Resource Account and in National Statistics publications.Copies of two recent such reports: Fraud and Error in the Benefit System from April 2006 to March 2007, and Fraud and Error in the Benefit System from October 2006 to September 2007 have been placed in the House of Commons Library. These are based on detailed examination of a random sample of benefit claims and are an estimate of all error, whether it was detected by normal departmental processes or not. The differences in definition mean that the two sets of figures are not comparable.

2001-02
	Customer Error	Official Error
	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	All overpayments as percentage of total each benefit paid
IS	190	64	1.3	6	23	0.04	1.4
JSA(C)	0.7	0.24	0.15	0.01	0.04	0.002	0.15
JSA(IB)	22	7	1	0.3	1	0.012	1
Other benefits	83	28	0.1	19	75	0.024	0.13
Total	296	—	—	¹25	—	—	—
Note:
Amounts not captured:
¹Estimated amount recorded in easements; £96 million
Recorded by the Recoveries from Estates team; £17 million.
Total overpayments recorded; £434 million.

2002-03
	Customer Error	Official Error
	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	All overpayments as percentage of total each benefit paid
IS	175	64	1.2	5	26	0.03	1.3
JSA(C)	0.8	0.3	0.15	0.017	0.1	0.003	0.15
JSA(IB)	22	8	1	0.25	1	0.01	1
Other benefits	78	28	0.09	14	73	0.01	0.11
Total	275			¹19
Note:
Amounts not captured:
¹ Estimated amount recorded in easements; £105 million.
Recorded by the Recoveries from Estates team; £19 million.
Total overpayments recorded; £418 million.

2003-04
	Customer Error	Official Error
	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	All overpayments as percentage of total each benefit paid
IS	153	63	1.5	3	16	0.03	1.5
JSA(C)	0.7	0.3	0.14	0.019	0.09	0.003	0.14
JSA(IB)	22	9	1	0.2	0.79	0.008	1
PC	0.14	0.06	0.002	0.2	1	0.004	0.007
Other benefits	69	28	0.09	18	82	0.02	0.11
Total	245	—	—	¹21	—	—	—
Note:
Amounts not captured:
¹ Estimated amount recorded in easements; £78 million.
Recorded by the Recoveries from Estates team; £19 million.
Total overpayments recorded; £363 million.

2004-05
	Customer Error	Official Error
	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	All overpayments as percentage of total each benefit paid
IS	162	62	1.6	2	5	0.01	1.6
JSA(C)	0.5	0.2	0.1	0.01	0.03	0.002	0.12
JSA(IB)	26	10	1	0.11	0.35	0.006	1
PC	2	0.9	0.03	3	10	0.05	0.09
Other benefits	70	27	0.08	27	84	0.001	0.12
Total	260	—	—	¹32	—	—	—
Note:
Amounts not captured:
¹ Estimated amount recorded in easements; £96 million.
Recorded by the Recoveries from Estates team; £20 million.
Total overpayments recorded: £4408.

2005-06
	Customer Error	Official Error
	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	All overpayments as percentage of total each benefit paid
IS	190	67	2.1	9	7	0.09	2.2
JSA(C)	0.8	0.3	0.2	0.01	0.01	0.002	0.17
JSA(IB)	23	8	1.3	0.25	0.2	0.01	1.3
PC	6	2	0.08	30	23	0.46	0.55
Other benefits	62	22	0.07	90	70	0.06	0.18
Total	282	—	—	¹129	—	—	—
Note:
Amounts not captured:
Estimated amount recorded in easements: £98 million.
Total overpayments recorded: £509 million.

2006-07
	Customer Error	Official Error
	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	All overpayments as percentage of total each benefit paid
IS	273	59	3	51	26	0.6	3.7
JSA(C)	2	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.2	0.08	0.5
JSA(IB)	27	6	1.4	3	1	0.15	1.5
PC	60	13	0.9	31	16	0.5	1.1
Other benefits	101	22	0.1	129	54	0.14	0.27
Total	463	—	—	214	—	—	—
Note:
Total overpayments recorded: £677 million.

20007-08
	Customer Error	Official Error
	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	Value of overpayments (£ million)	Percentage of total overpaid	Percentage of total of each benefit paid	All overpayments as percentage of total each benefit paid
IS	243	63	2.8	67	31	0.8	3.6
JSA(C)	2	0.5	0.48	1	0.47	0.24	0.73
JSA(IB)	24	6	1	6	3	0.33	1.7
PC	32	8	0.44	25	12	0.34	0.78
Other benefits	83	22	0.09	116	54	0.12	0.2
Total	384	—	—	215	—	—	—
Note:
1. Total Overpayments recorded; £ 599 million.
2. Values are rounded to nearest million—unless less than £1 million.
3. The figures given in this answer are actual values of official error and customer error detected and recorded by the Department. The Department also publishes estimates of overpayments in the Resource Account and in National Statistics publications. These are based on detailed examination of a random sample of benefit claims and are an estimate of all error, whether it was detected by normal Departmental processes or not. The differences in definition mean that the two sets of figures are not comparable.
4. Pension Credit was introduced from 6 October 2003, and prior to that, payments would have been made as Income Support.

Amounts recovered by DWP broken down by benefit
Recoveries £ million
	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
IS	83.0	79.8	78.5	104.0	100.0	103.2	115.5
JSA(C)	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.8	1.1
JSA(IB)	8.5	7.7	9.2	17.0	12.5	15.6	15.8
PC	—	—	1.4	2.9	2.8	20.6	30.0
HB	0.9	1.7	2.2	3.3	3.2	6.6	4.0
Other benefits	95.3	100.5	92.6	61.4	61.7	73.9	88.9
Total	188.0	190.0	184.2	188.8	180.4	220.7	255.3

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

477 c974-80W; 207302

Session

2007-08

Related items

Deposited Paper DEP2008-1619
Thursday, 19 June 2008
Deposited papers
House of Commons

Social Security Benefits: Overpayments and Costs
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Written questions
House of Commons

Subjects

Overpayments Social security benefits

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk