Member

Finally, the 1.7% rise also benefits those who are receiving benefits but are not supposed to. Fraud is prevalent primarily in the benefit system, but the Government have acknowledged that there is some limited fraud in the pension sector. The Minister is well aware that we are broadly behind the crackdown on fraud, with upwards of £8 billion of fraud to rein in. I was pleased to read in the papers last week that the Government acknowledge that they are, in effect, continuing a lot of the good work that I believe we started; I hope that the Minister recognises this. Although we will have many questions when the Bill in question eventually reaches the Upper House, in general, we will support efforts to stop fraud; no more uplift of fraudulent payments is what we all want.