The PAC held an evidence session (www.bit.ly/1Qho8X4) on fraud and error stocktake on Monday 14 September.
The PAC held an evidence session (www.bit.ly/1Qho8X4) on fraud and error stocktake on Monday 14 September. Evidence was given by: Robert Devereux, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) permanent secretary; Jon Fundrey, DWP senior responsible officer of the fraud, error and debt programme; Lin Homer, HMRC chief executive and permanent secretary; and Nick Lodge, HMRC director general of benefits and credits.
The session focused mainly on the overall underpayment on benefits and tax credits by £1.6bn during 2013/14, although HMRC’s IT systems were mentioned. ‘With the complexity of the system, we are always going to have some underpayments as well as overpayments,’ Lin Homer told the PAC. ‘They are quite a small part … [the complex system] makes it very difficult for people to get things right.’ She also told the committee that the introduction of real time information (RTI) ‘has seriously cleaned up employee data in a way that really helps us all’ with a level of accuracy over 90%.
The PAC held an evidence session (www.bit.ly/1Qho8X4) on fraud and error stocktake on Monday 14 September.
The PAC held an evidence session (www.bit.ly/1Qho8X4) on fraud and error stocktake on Monday 14 September. Evidence was given by: Robert Devereux, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) permanent secretary; Jon Fundrey, DWP senior responsible officer of the fraud, error and debt programme; Lin Homer, HMRC chief executive and permanent secretary; and Nick Lodge, HMRC director general of benefits and credits.
The session focused mainly on the overall underpayment on benefits and tax credits by £1.6bn during 2013/14, although HMRC’s IT systems were mentioned. ‘With the complexity of the system, we are always going to have some underpayments as well as overpayments,’ Lin Homer told the PAC. ‘They are quite a small part … [the complex system] makes it very difficult for people to get things right.’ She also told the committee that the introduction of real time information (RTI) ‘has seriously cleaned up employee data in a way that really helps us all’ with a level of accuracy over 90%.
