21 January 2000
Income support accounted for £637m of this, a sum equivalent to more than 5% of expenditure, and an increase of £81m on the previous year's inaccurate payments. The vast majority of this figure – £426m – were overpayments.
The jobseekers allowance errors, which totalled £244m, showed an even bigger rise – of £137.4m. Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said he had 'no alternative' but to qualify the accounts for the eleventh consecutive year.
'The levels of both [fraud and error] are unacceptably high,' said Sir John. He added the Benefits Agency faced a 'significant challenge' in seeking to achieve real change.
The large increases have occurred despite the agency putting a quality support team into place to improve the accuracy of payments.
This team visited each of the Benefit Agency's 13 districts twice during 1998/99.
There were vast regional differences in payments. Only two – East of Scotland and Wales – met the government's target of accurate payments in 87% of cases.
This meant the 11 other regions fell below the target. The worst offender was the Chilterns, which had only a 76% success rate.
Fraud levels also remain high. Almost £103m was lost to fraud by the agency, which includes child benefit and family credit payments under its remit.
PFjan2000
