Written question asked by Kate Green (Labour) on Thursday, 13 January 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 17 January 2011. It was answered by Lord Grayling (Conservative) on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Social Security Benefits: Fraud

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to paragraph 23 of his Department's White paper on Universal Credits: welfare that works, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the annual sum wrongly paid in benefits which was attributable to (a) fraud and (b) error; and what estimate he has made of the proportion of the amount so paid in error which is attributable to (i) claimant and (ii) official error in respect of benefits paid by (A) his Department, (B) local authorities and (C) HM Revenue and Customs.

Answer

The proportion of the annual sum wrongly paid in benefits attributed to fraud and error is shown in the following tables:

Amount and proportion of benefits and tax credits wrongly paid due to fraud and error
	£ billion	Percentage
DWP benefits (2009/10)
Fraud	1.0	31.0
Customer error	1.1	69.0
Official error	1.1	¹—

HMRC tax credits (2008-09)
Fraud	1.65	78
Error	0.46	22

DWP benefits (2009-10) and HMRC tax credits (2008-09)
Fraud	—	50
Error	—	50
¹ Indicates a brace

Amount and proportion of benefits and tax credits due to error by organisation
	£ billion	Percentage
DWP (2009/10)
Total error	1.44	—
Customer error	0.59	41
Official error	0.85	59

Local authorities (housing benefit) (2009-10)
Total error	0.76	—
Customer error	0.51	67
Official error	0.25	33

HMRC (tax credits) (2008-09)
Customer error	0.46	—
Notes:
1. DWP and local authority figures are for 2009-10.
2. Tax credit figures are for 2008-09.
3. There is no administrative error available for tax credits.
4. The total of DWP fraud and error is actually £3.1 billion due to rounding.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 34296; 522 c257-8W
Session: 2010-12
Related items: Universal credit: welfare that works.
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Command papers
House of Commons
Subjects: Fraud Social security benefits
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk