Record fraud crackdown saves half a billion for public services

• Government stops over £480 million ending up in the pockets of fraudsters over twelve months since April 2024 - more money than ever before.

• New technology and artificial intelligence turns the tide in the fight against public sector fraud, with new tech to prevent repeat of Covid loan fraud.

• Over a third of the money saved relates to fraud committed by companies and people during the pandemic.      

• Crackdown means more funding for schools, hospitals and vital public services to deliver the Plan for Change.

Fraudsters have been stopped from stealing a record £480 million from the taxpayer in the government's biggest ever fraud crackdown, meaning more money can be used to recruit nurses, teachers and police officers as part of the Plan for Change.

Over a third of the money saved, £186 million, comes from identifying and recovering fraud committed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Government efforts to date have blocked hundreds of thousands of companies with outstanding or potentially fraudulent Bounce Back Loans from dissolving before they would have to pay anything back. We have also clawed back millions of pounds from companies that took out Covid loans they were not entitled to, or took out multiple loans when only entitled to one.

This builds on successful convictions in recent months to crack down on opportunists who exploited the Bounce Back Loan Scheme for their own gain, including a woman who invented a company and then sent the loan money to Poland. 

Alongside Covid fraud, the record savings reached in the year to April 2025 include clamping down on people unlawfully claiming single persons council tax discount and removing people from social housing waitlists who wanted to illegally sublet their discounted homes at the taxpayers' expense.

Announcing the record figures at an anti-fraud Five Eyes summit in London, Cabinet Office Minister Josh Simons said: 

“Working people expect their taxes to go towards schools, hospitals, roads and the services they and their families use. That money going into the hands of fraudsters is a betrayal of their hard work and the system of paying your fair share. It has to stop.

“That's why this government has delivered the toughest ever crackdown on fraud, protecting almost half a billion pounds in under 12 months.

“We're using cutting-edge AI and data tools to stay one step ahead of fraudsters, making sure public funds are protected and used to deliver public services for those who need them most - not line the pockets of scammers and swindlers .”

The savings have been driven by comparing different information the government holds to stop people falsely claiming benefits and discounts that they're clearly not eligible for.

The high-tech push brought £111m back to the exchequer more than the year before, and comes as the government pushes to save £45 billion by using tech to make the public sector more productive, saving money for the NHS and police forces to deliver the Plan for Change.

The Minister will also unveil a new AI fraud prevention tool that has been built by the government and will be used across all departments after successful tests.

The AI system scans new policies and procedures for weaknesses before they can be exploited, helping make new policies fraud-proof when they are drafting them. The tool could be essential in stopping fraudsters from taking advantage of government efforts to help people in need amid future emergencies.

It has been designed to prevent the scale of criminality seen through the Covid pandemic, where millions were lost to people falsely taking advantage of furlough, Covid Grants and Bounce Back Loans.

Results from early tests show it could save thousands of hours and help prevent millions in potential losses, slashing the time to identify fraud risks by 80% while preserving human oversight.

The UK will also licence the technology internationally, with Five Eyes partners at the summit considering adoption as part of strengthening global efforts to stop fraud and demonstrating Britain's role at the forefront of innovation.

The summit will bring together key allies and showcase the government's unprecedented use of artificial intelligence, data-matching and specialist investigators to target fraud across more than a thousand different schemes.

At the summit, Cabinet Office Minister Josh Simons will describe how the record crackdown has been achieved:

• Over £68 million of wrongful pension payments were prevented across major public sector pension schemes, including the Local Government Pension Scheme, NHS Pension Scheme, Civil Service Pensions and Armed Forces pension schemes. These savings were achieved by identifying cases where pension payments continued after the individual had died, often with relatives continuing to claim benefits they were not entitled to.

• More than 2,600 people were removed from housing waiting lists they weren't entitled to be on, including individuals who were subletting or had multiple tenancies unlawfully. 

• Over 37,000 fraudulent single-person council tax discount claims were stopped, saving £36 million for local councils and taxpayers. These false claims, often made by individuals misrepresenting their household size to secure a 25% discount, were uncovered using advanced data-matching.

Today's announcement follows extensive progress on fraud in the last 12 months, including the appointment of a Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner, introduced the Public Authorities Fraud, Error and Recovery Bill, and boosted AI-driven detection, saving hundreds of millions and strengthening public sector fraud prevention – driven by the Public Sector Fraud Authority.

The majority of the £480 million saved is taxpayer money, with a portion from private sector partners, such as insurance and utilities companies, helping lower consumer costs and support UK business growth.

NOTES TO EDITORS

• The new AI fraud prevention tool is called the Fraud Risk Assessment Accelerator. 

• In the previous period, the Public Sector Fraud Authority reported savings of £373 million.

• The Five Eyes summit is an international meeting which will include partners from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, focused on sharing best practices and collaborating on global challenges, including fraud prevention.