Social Security Benefits: Fraud
(asked on 12th April 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefit fraud referrals by local authorities were (a) made to, (b) rejected by, (c) accepted by and (d) are awaiting a decision by her Department on tenants in Supported Accommodation Units in each of the last three years in each local authority area.
The number of Local Authority referrals received by DWP in each of the last three financial years is as follows:
2018/19 | 23,387 |
2019/20 | 23,013 |
2020/21 | 13,902 |
As a result of those referrals, the following number of cases were accepted by DWP:
2018/19 | 19,857 |
2019/20 | 19,604 |
2020/21 | 11,543 |
The difference between the two data sets represents the number of referrals that were not progressed. This could be because the referral contained insufficient information or duplicated an existing communication.
The Department’s recording system does not hold information on benefit fraud referrals made specifically in relation to tenants living in Supported Accommodation Units. It is also unable to provide figures that reflect individual Local Authorities. The figures provided therefore represent total numbers for all Local Authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.