The department for work and pensions (DWP) has shared details of a new £613 million plan to stop an estimated £4 billion from being lost in fraud and error over the next five years. The ‘Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System’ plan outlines how the DWP will create a new 2,000-strong team dedicated to reviewing more than two million existing Universal Credit claims.
Expected to stop around £2 billion of losses due to fraud and error over the next five years, this new team will review the entitlements and circumstances of Universal Credit claims that the DWP deems are at risk of being incorrect, including suspicious cases which entered the system during the height of the pandemic.
Earnings is the highest loss area for fraud and error, totalling £1.9 billion in 2020/21 in Universal Credit. This is in part a result of the significant increase in the proportion of self-employed claimants from 5.4% of the Universal Credit caseload in February 2020 to 15.4% in July 2020.
The DWP states there has been an increase in fraud and estimates around £0.2 billion was lost to this in 2020/21 in Universal Credit. The DWP also said that while fraud makes up the majority of its losses, they understand that navigating the welfare system can be complex and it wants to “support claimants to provide the right information at the right time”.
