Government ‘not resting’ on tackling benefit fraud

The government has said it’s working hard to tackle fraud and error in the welfare system.

Fraud and error currently cost taxpayers £10bn a year, with £35bn in total being incorrectly paid out since the pandemic.

But while it has come down from 4.0% in 2021/22 to 3.7% in 2023/24, the government wants to go further.

“This is still not good enough, so we are not resting,” said Andrew Western, a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Mr Western noted that the government announced “the biggest fraud and error package on record” in last autumn’s Budget.

This, he said, has led the Office for Budget Responsibility to forecast that fraud and error will fall to pre-pandemic levels.

What’s the government doing?

The government has announced measures that it believes will be tough on criminals and fairer to taxpayers, including:

• modernising the approach to preventing overpayments
• introducing new safeguards to protect vulnerable people

The DWP is also putting resources towards understanding the “current fraud landscape” and measuring the scale of the problem.

Mr Western said the government is using this insight to design strategies to reduce fraud and “prevent new fraud” from happening.

He added that the DWP is aiming to identify and address any fraud risk created by new policies “before they are implemented”.

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