Written question asked by Lord McCabe (Labour) on Thursday, 29 August 2013, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 3 September 2013. It was answered by Steve Webb (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 6 September 2013 on behalf of the Treasury. Department for Work and Pensions was asked to reply.

Housing Benefit: Fraud

Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many prosecutions for housing benefit fraud were recorded in each local authority area in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12.

Answer

I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

DWP publishes a range of Housing Benefit Recovery and Fraud statistics at Local Authority level. These can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/series/housing-benefit-recoveries-and-fraud-data

Specifically, the number of successful prosecutions is included in table 2.10 of the documents linked as follows:

2011-12 tables

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/223303/hbrf_1012.xls

2010-11 tables

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/223304/hbrf_1011.xls

2009-10 tables

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/223305/hbrf_0910.xls

Secondary information