Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Child Benefit – 26 November 1985
Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Child Benefit on 26th November 1985.
Mrs. Renée Short Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the number of single mothers who have withdrawn claims for child benefit in each single year since 1979, the number of case papers which have been requested from benefit officers’ staff by social security fraud squad officers in each single year since 1979; and if he will list the total number of officers who have been employed by his Department as fraud squad investigators during the same period giving a breakdown of the regions of the country to which they have been assigned.
Mr. Major [pursuant to his reply, 21 November 1985, c. 285]: I regret that the information requested concerning withdrawn claims for child benefit is not available. If the hon. Member has in mind the Department’s special claims control teams which were set up in 1981 and are the only fraud staff working in groups, the following table sets out a region by region breakdown of staff numbers for the last two years and a national total for the preceding two years. The number of case papers referred by benefit officers to the teams is not available.
Region | 1984-
North East | 32 | 28 | — | —
Midlands | 33 | 22 | — | —
London North | 27 | 21 | — | —
London South | 23 | 20 | — | —
Wales and South West | 22 | 33 | — | —
North West | 30 | 37 | — | —
Scotland | 22 | 14 | — | —
National Total | 189 | 175 | 141 | 147