Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) how many prosecutions for fraud for carers allowance have been pursued, (b) how many of those prosecutions were successful, (c) how much total overpaid benefit was recovered, (d) how much was levied in fines as a result of those prosecutions and (e) what the costs of bringing those prosecutions were in each of the last 10 years.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has a duty to protect public funds and an obligation to ensure that, overpaid benefit payments are recovered in accordance with the appropriate social security legislation.

DWP does not routinely publish prosecution statistics. The information is not available at a granular level. The level of detail requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.