Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many prosecutions for fraud of Carers Allowance there has been as a result of earnings exceeding the threshold by (a) less than 10 per cent, (b) less than 20 percent, (c) less than 10 per cent after deductions and (d) less than 20 per cent after deductions in each of the last ten 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 and the specific information requested is not available at a granular level. This could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Carers Allowance claimants would only be deemed to have been overpaid if their earnings exceeded the earnings threshold after allowable deductions have been taken into account.