Pension Credit: Overpayments

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Cardiff Central of 12 January 2009, Official Report, column 41W, on pension credit: overpayments, how much of the money recovered had originally been overpaid due to (a) fraud, (b) official error and (c) customer error in each month. (252994)

The information is in the following table:

*Pension credit overpayment recovery by classification, 2007-08*
£000
	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Fraud	12	21	23	15	12	16	21	13	18	17	22	19
Official error	159	124	121	125	121	124	176	164	145	122	94	48
Customer error	1,368	1,297	1,374	1,520	1,641	1,790	2,396	1,927	1,756	1,870	1,943	1,666
Other	686	777	801	691	622	574	608	616	412	469	442	478

*April to September 2008*
£000
	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sept
Fraud	19	17	26	37	21	25
Official error	44	24	53	38	32	38
Customer error	1,756	1,922	2,026	2,211	1,808	2,212
Other	616	429	440	600	446	431
Note: April to September 2008 data is indicative only.

Fraud classification relates to where the customer has been convicted or admitted fraud, or accepted an administrative penalty.

Other classification includes overpayments that have arisen where the Department has not been advised of a death in time to stop an automated payment into an account, or where an overpayment is identified following death.

Volume 491: debated on Thursday 30 April 2009