To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the (a) number and (b) amount spent on fraudulent claims for disability living allowance in each of the last four years. (293576)

The Department’s measurement system for fraud and error does not estimate the number of fraudulent cases over a given period. It does, however, provide an estimate of the average number of fraudulent claims at any one time. Estimates of fraud in disability living allowance were last measured in 2004-05 when the number of fraudulent cases was estimated to be 10,000 cases. There are no estimates for later years.

An estimate for the percentage of fraudulent expenditure has also been produced for 2004-05 and subsequent years by applying the 2004-05 percentage of fraudulent expenditure to the relevant disability living allowance expenditure in each subsequent year. The estimates are in the following table.