FOI Request Over Payment of Benefits

Request 101001629711

1) Can you tell me how much housing benefit you overpaid to claimants/customers last year 2016/2017? (and the previous two years 2015/16 and 2014/15)
2) And how many claimants/customers are in receipt of the benefit in 2016/2017? (and the previous two years 2015/16 and 2014/15)
3) Can you break down this overpayment figure into how much was overpaid by fraudulent claims in 2016/2017? (and the previous two years 2015/16 and 2014/15)
4) And how much due to authority error in 2016/2017? (and the previous two years 2015/16 and 2014/15)
5) Out of the total overpaid can you tell me how much, if any, the council has recovered in 2016/2017? (and the previous two years 2015/16 and 2014/15)
6) And if so how you do this (do you employ debt collectors etc)?
7) Out of the total overpaid can you tell me how much, if any, the council has “written off” in 2016/2017?
8) Can you tell me how many of the overpayments resulted in
a) Court prosecutions,
b) Penalty payments
(c) And council cautions?
Can you supply the answers to question 8 a,b and c for the years 2016/17, 2015/16 and 2014/15

Response 24-10-2017

1) amount HB overpaid 2016-17 £389329, 2015-16 £457696, 2014-15 £531173

2) HB caseload 2016-17 5123, 2015-16 5194, 2014-15 5220

3) Fraud overpayments 2016-17 £16451, 2015-16 £10823, 2014-15 £10579

4) Local authority error 2016-17 £21474, 2015-16 £27986, 2014-15 £30450

5) Overall recovery during year 2016-17 £367235, 2015-16 £411389, 2014-15 £447179

6) Recovered by deductions from ongoing benefit, invoices, referrals to sheriff officers

7) Written off 2016-17 £10015, 2015-16 £9403, 2014-15 £32901

8) DWP are responsible for Housing Benefit fraud and they hold all the information regarding prosecutions/penalties/cautions therefore this information is exempt under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002- Information Not Held.