Compensation Payments

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Social Security – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 January 2001.

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Photo of Hugh Bayley Hugh Bayley Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Social Security), NATO Parliamentary Assembly UK Delegation 12:00, 29 January 2001

Several such cases have been drawn to my attention by my hon. Friend the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Mr. Rowlands). Higher figures were initially sought by the compensation recovery unit because the date of the injury had not been established at the time. The compensation recovery scheme provides for the Department of Social Security to reclaim benefits for five years from the date of injury. As a result of the difficulties in the cases that my hon. Friend drew to my attention, we have introduced some changes, about which I notified the House on Friday, in answer to a parliamentary question that he tabled. Those changes will speed up the recovery process and avoid the difficulty of a higher initial claim being made, because we shall seek to establish the date at which the injury occurred before we issue a certificate for recovery.