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Basic State Pension

Volume 454: debated on Wednesday 13 December 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) fraud and (b) error rate was in the administration of the basic state pension in each of the last five years; how many basic state pension claimants were asked to make repayments in each year; what the total amount of overpaid state pensions repaid was in each year; and what the average amount of basic pension overpayed to claimants was in each year. (101798)

The number of state pension customers who were asked to make repayments in each year is not available. The available information is in the following tables.

Table 1: Estimates of state pension overpaidApril to March each yearFraudCustomer errorOfficial errorTotal2001-02Percentage of benefit overpaid0.00.10.10.2Overpaid (£ million)03040702002-03Percentage of benefit overpaid0.00.10.00.1Overpaid (£ million)04010502003-04Percentage of benefit overpaid0.00.10.10.1Overpaid (£ million)04020602004-05Percentage of benefit overpaid0.00.10.10.1Overpaid (£ million)04030702005-06Percentage of benefit overpaid0.00.10.10.1Overpaid (£ million)0403070 Notes:The estimated amounts of state pension overpaid in each of the last five years are set out in Table 1. As state pension is not reviewed every year, the estimates provided are calculated as follows:1. Fraud and customer error estimates are calculated by applying percentages from the 2006 state pension pilot National Benefit Review to expenditure for previous years.2. The official error estimates are produced from the continuous official error measurement in the relevant year.

Table 2: Amount of state pension repaid in each of the last five years

Recovered (£ million)

2001-02

16.1

2002-03

15.0

2003-04

15.1

2004-05

17.0

2005-06

16.2

Note:

A direct comparison with the figures in Table 1 is inappropriate. This is because the data in Table 1 are obtained from sampling exercises which are then assumed to apply to the total number of state pension cases. In contrast, the figures in this table relate to actual amounts repaid.

Table 3: Average amount of state pension overpaid to individual customers who have been overpaid

Average amount overpaid (£)

2001-02

409

2002-03

399

2003-04

417

2004-05

367

2005-06

213