Benefits blow as £1 in every £15 is fraud or error
Nearly £10 billion of taxpayer money was paid out for bogus or erroneous claims in 2023-24, accounting for 6.7 per cent of
The vast majority of the excess cost
The figures, which exclude state pensions, appear in a report by the public accounts committee, which accused the DWP of having
The department has sought to blame the problem in part on greater fraud in wider society, but the MPs said the level was 'unacceptably high' and insisted it was the DWP's job to 'improve defences'.
The rising levels of waste pose a challenge for Sir Keir Starmer, who has staked political capital on tackling Britain's bloated benefits bill. In an attempt to ease the burden on the taxpayer, the Government has announced new laws to tackle benefit fraud and recover money from cheats who refuse to pay up. The Chancellor has also pledged to stick to Tory plans to cut £3 billion from incapacity benefits by 2028.
According to the committee's report, the DWP estimates that it overpaid a total of £9.5 billion, or 6.7 per cent of benefit spending, in the year to March 2024.That is an increase of about 16 per cent on the previous year.
The department set out a plan to tackle fraud and error in May 2022, including a series of 'targeted case reviews' to verify around eight million existing Universal Credit claims. But it fell short of its expected savings of £115 million in 2023-24, instead clawing back £90 million.
The DWP insisted this was just 'a blip', according to the committee, blaming staffing pressures. It said it would be using an extra £110 million in funding from the new Government to carry out more targeted reviews and checking that claimants' details were up to date.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Tory chairman of the committee, said it had 'little sympathy for the DWP's argument that this rise is driven by
A DWP spokesman said: 'The report does not consider that we are already taking action on fraud and error through our new Fraud, Error and Recovery Bill which will help us protect claimants by stopping errors earlier alongside saving an estimated £1.5 billion of taxpayer money over the next five years.'
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