Border Agency costs us all £70m
BUNGLING border officials are preparing to write off almost £70million in bad debts, overpayments and compensation to asylum seekers.
A shocking catalogue of costly mistakes at the Home Office’s UK Border Agency meant £26million had to be written off in the last financial year.
And the agency paid out £13million of benefits in error to would-be refugees since April 2008.
Astonishingly, a further £41million has had to be set aside in special accounts to cover more bungles,
including bad debts, overpayments and compensation claims, this year.
The agency’s accounts reveal £12million was overpaid last year to just six hostel owners for providing asylum seekers’ accommodation.
Embarrassingly for the agency’s Home Office bosses, £4.3million ended up incorrectly in the pockets of the agency’s own staff.
Failure to update salary changes and annual leave entitlements on payroll systems meant the agency overpaid more than 2,500 employees by an average of about £1,700 each.
The public administration of the civil service has become increasingly dysfunctional.
Meanwhile three refugees who were unlawfully detained while border officials investigated their claims ended up being paid more than £330,000 each last year in compensation.
And settlements worth £2.1million were reached with 40 under-18s who were wrongly detained as adults – an average of £52,000 each.
Yet in spite of the mistakes, 29 senior officials were paid £295,000 in bonuses in 2009. Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Commons Public Administration Committee said: “The public administration of the civil service has become increasingly dysfunctional.
“The whole basis of civil administration in the UK has to be a huge agenda for the new government.”
The losses are detailed in the Border Agency’s annual report, published last week. Most embarrassing of the errors is the £13.1million in benefits overpaid to asylum seekers in the past two years.
Officials found that payments still being made to claimants when support should have ended totalled £9.6million during 2008/09 and £3.5million during 2009/10.
About £1.9million went to asylum seekers whose applications had already failed.
Agency chief executive Lin Homer said: “Overpayments should not be happening and we are committed to seeing them dramatically reduced. It is crucial that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely.”
