New Clause 17

Part of Welfare Reform Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:15 pm on 28 November 2006.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Tim Boswell Tim Boswell Conservative, Daventry 4:15, 28 November 2006

I need make only a brief contribution. I sympathise very much with the spirit of the hon. Gentleman’s comments in moving the new clause. As a matter of what might be termed judicial reasonableness, Ministers are at least obliged to share with the Committee why the hurdles should be set slightly differently for housing benefit than for other benefits. That is not just some sort of lawyer’s quibble; it is a substantive issue.

I understand that to the extent to which something is obviously wrong, there is an obligation on the citizen to do something about it. I will share with the Committee an experience from my association with a not-for-profit organisation. We recently received a cheque for a six-figure sum from the Department for Work and Pensions. As it was mentioned to me by the treasurer, I had the opportunity to draw it to the attention of the Secretary of State—who I hope did not pocket the amount—and we got it back to the right place. It is perfectly reasonable when dealing with such people—the turnover of the organisation was rather less than £10,000 a year—to say, “Something has gone wrong, and we really ought to do something about it.” We can be good-natured about that.

I must admit to the Minister of State that I do not always agree with him on political issues, but I agree that I might have been a little sharper in my exchanges yesterday with his colleague the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington, on official error. I was somewhat surprised by his colleague’s assertion that only a quarter of overpayments related to official error rather than client or customer error. We will not debate that at length now, but the fact is that a significant number do arise from official error—too many for comfort. That is partly a function of the benefits system, and it is important that we should get to the bottom of it, see why it happens and get it rectified, which is the most important thing.

Our constituents who might claim, even more than some of us, to know a little bit about this complex system, are not expected to sit an exam on the details of the benefits system. They also have a perfectly natural predisposition to say that if the calculation is an official calculation it is likely to be right. I am not talking about people getting a cheque for £250,000 in the post as their housing benefit; I am talking about comparatively minor overpayments that are not easily spottable.