Written question asked by John Barrett (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 18 January 2010. It was answered by Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour) on Monday, 25 January 2010 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Social Security Payments: Overpayments

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how long on average her Department took to investigate alleged instances of benefit overpayment following the death of the claimant in the last 12 months.

Answer: [holding answer 18 January 2010]: Our investigations start when the Department receives details of the grant of probate. Those probate records are then matched against departmental records of deceased income related benefit recipients. In the majority of such cases no discrepancy with the records is identified. In those cases where further inquiries are required, the average time taken to complete those inquiries is 15 weeks. This is from receipt of the probate, including obtaining information from the executor, and ending with a formal claim on the estate.We handle such cases as sensitively as possible, taking into account that this can be a particularly stressful time if the executor is a close friend or family member.

Secondary information