Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Benefit Fraud

Monday 19 June 2023 · 3 questions

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

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 3 Partly answered 0 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Ministerial Department is investing 900 million to prevent 2.4 billion of fraud and error by 2024-25.
  • Government sees the private Member's Bill introduced by Bob Blackman as a tool to tighten regulations on rogue landlords.
  • The Secretary of State reported a 10% reduction in fraud across the benefit system and a 13% drop in universal credit fraud since the fraud plan was published.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Bob Blackman Con Harrow East
Benefits & Welfare
Context

The government has invested £900 million to prevent benefit fraud and error, aiming to save £2.4 billion by 2024-25.

Question

What steps his Department is taking to tackle benefit fraud?

Answer from Mel Stride

My hon. Friend will know that we are investing £900 million to ensure that we prevent a total of £2.4 billion of fraud and error by 2024-25. We launched our fraud plan last May, which is already delivering results.

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Q2 Bob Blackman Con Harrow East
Housing Benefits & Welfare
Context

The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Bill aims to tighten regulations for rogue landlords exploiting vulnerable people in the housing benefit system.

Question

What action can he take to ensure that we rein in those rogue landlords and prevent vulnerable people from being exploited?

Answer from Mel Stride

My hon. Friend is quite right, and I wrote to him to congratulate him on his well deserved CBE. Part of the answer to his question lies in his private Member's Bill, which we see as an important tool to allow us to tighten up the regulations and requirements as expressed through local authorities to ensure that those who are abusing the system—it is not everyone—are dealt with appropriately.

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Q3 Emma Hardy Lab Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice
Benefits & Welfare
Context

The National Audit Office reported that benefit fraud and error totalled £8.6 billion in 2021-22, prompting calls for action to reduce such fraudulent claims.

Question

What actions will the Secretary of State take to reduce fraud? Importantly, how will he ensure that the clawing back of DWP errors—those that are not the fault of the claimant—is carefully and fairly considered so that that does not put the claimant further into poverty?

Answer from Mel Stride

The hon. Lady raises an important point. The Government's record under my stewardship at the DWP is a good one. In fact, since the fraud plan was published last May, fraud across the benefit system has reduced by some 10%, and across universal credit there has been a 13% drop. We expect to see those figures increasing through time. We are doing that through targeted case reviews—going through cases and looking for fraud and error—and I have another 1,000 people being recruited for that purpose. We are also using artificial intelligence, data analytics and machine learning to ensure that we catch up with the more sophisticated attacks on our system.

Answered

Not addressed: The questioner asked about ensuring fair treatment of claimants when errors occur, which was not addressed in the answer.

How: Changing Subject

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