Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Benefit Fraud Investigations

Monday 19 October 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Ministers redeployed staff during the pandemic to process a surge in claims.
  • The surge in claims went from 2.2 million to 5.7 million.
  • More staff are now being redirected back to fraud detection and investigation.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Sarah Jones Lab Croydon West
Employment Benefits & Welfare
Context

The question stems from a concern about the adequacy of current measures to prevent and address benefit fraud, especially given the strain on welfare systems due to recent events.

Question

What steps her Department is taking to review the effectiveness of benefit fraud investigations. In light of increasing cases like those involving innocent constituents suffering significant hardship due to fraudulent claims, what will the Government do to ensure that such families are protected and not unfairly penalised?

Answer from Will Quince

The hon. Lady's case should never have happened, and Ministers had to make difficult decisions regarding staff redeployment due to an unprecedented surge in claims during the pandemic. This led to a temporary reduction in counter-fraud efforts but more staff are now being redirected back to fraud detection and investigation.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific steps and timeline for reviewing and improving benefit fraud investigations were not explicitly detailed.

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Q2 Sarah Jones Lab Croydon West
Benefits & Welfare
Context

A constituent, a mother of three children, experienced significant financial hardship due to a fraudulent universal credit and housing benefit claim in her name. This highlights broader issues regarding the detection and handling of such cases.

Question

A constituent of mine, a mother of three children, recently had her universal credit and housing benefit stopped for over two months because of a fraudulent claim made in her name. She was completely innocent but suffered significant financial hardship. We know that benefit fraud, especially in universal credit, is increasing; what will the Government do to stop innocent families from suffering unjustly due to such issues?

Answer from Will Quince

Ministers redeployed staff during the pandemic to process a surge in claims from 2.2 million to 5.7 million, temporarily reducing counter-fraud efforts but now more staff are being redirected back to fraud detection and investigation.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific actions or timeline for preventing future instances of innocent claimants suffering due to benefit fraud were not provided.

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