A new report was published that provides an estimate of fraud and error in the period from October 2004 to September 2005, and compares this to the baseline year (April 2002 to March 2003). This series of reports is used to monitor progress against the Government's target to reduce the level of fraud and error in Housing Benefit by 25% by 2006.
The estimates in the report are of incorrectly paid Housing Benefit. This encompasses a wide range of scenarios from deliberate fraud to instances where there is a short and difficult to avoid delay in the reporting and processing of a change of a claimant's circumstances.
The estimates in this report do not encompass all fraud and error occurring in HB payments. Firstly, it is likely that some fraud and error, if present on sample cases, would not have been uncovered, e.g. because fraud is by its nature a covert activity and because complex error can be difficult to detect. Secondly, there are also some kinds of fraud and error that cannot be captured at all by the current measurement process, e.g. overpayments caused by incorrect awards of other benefits such as Disability Living Allowance or instrument of payment fraud.
Key findings include:
Fraud and Error in Housing Benefit, April 2002 to September 2005. www.dwp.gov.uk.
The Welfare Reform Bill was published, which proposes to introduce powers to replace incapacity benefits with a new Employment Support Allowance that, alongside a new Personal Capability Assessment, will give individuals more relevant support and help to get them into appropriate work.
The Bill will also provide more power to tackle benefit fraud, which will strengthen the two strikes rules, so that people who commit a second benefit offence within five years of their first one can have their benefit withdrawn.
There will also be a framework to reform and improve the design and administration of Housing Benefit. It will provide for the roll-out of the Local Housing Allowance across the private sector, as well as measures to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Further steps to increase employment opportunity, such as providing more support to lone parents and breaking down the barriers to work experienced by older people, will be implemented through secondary legislation.
Note: A fuller report will appear in the September edition of Legal Update.
A new study from the Institute of Economic Affairs calls for the £20 billion expenditure on the current Housing Benefit and subsidies systems to be replaced with a direct-to-tenant means tested cash benefit.
Choice and the End of Social Housing.
www.iea.org.uk
The London councils that are piloting the Local Housing Allowance have seen a large increase in the average cost of private sector benefit claims. In an answer to a Parliamentary question, Housing Benefit Minister James Plaskitt revealed increases in average private sector rents that were as high as 60% last year (Lewisham Council). The average private sector rents in the boroughs piloting the scheme have risen from £88.31 in December 2003 to £137.71 in November 2004.
