Billions to be saved by driving down benefit fraud and error

• Additional £1.2 billion of savings to be made as Chancellor expected to continue efforts to identify incorrect Universal Credit payments to 2031.
• 6,000 strong team at the Department for Work and Pensions has already reviewed over one million cases and saved the taxpayer £1 billion.
• Nearly 13% of Universal Credit paid out in the last Parliament was incorrect due to fraud and error

The Chancellor is expected to double down on the biggest drive to reduce fraud and error in the welfare system in a generation at the Budget – by extending the Government's flagship Targeted Case Review (TCR) scheme to save the taxpayer an additional £1.2 billion by March 2031, taking total savings of the scheme to £9.6 billion.

Targeted Case Reviews, which roots out inaccuracies in UC claims, thus identifying error or potential fraud sooner, has already saved the hardworking taxpayer £1billion by correcting claims and is expected to be extended.

A 6,000 strong team at the Department for Work and Pensions has already reviewed over one million cases, helping identify instances where claimants had not declared savings or property ownership which led to incorrect payments going to individuals. These findings have led to improvements including requiring claimants to regularly confirm their circumstances, ensuring eligibility remains accurate and preventing future overpayments.

These findings have led to improvements including requiring claimants to regularly confirm their circumstances, ensuring eligibility remains accurate and preventing future overpayments

This comes on top of wider work in DWP to uncover fraud in the welfare system, including a couple who fraudulently claimed £48,000 in Universal Credit, while secretly renting out an undeclared second home.  

The Department's fraud busting work has also led to the conviction of a criminal gang who made 196 fraudulent Universal Credit claims, worth around £2.3 million, by bringing people in and out of the UK with the sole purpose of making fraudulent benefit claims. The two suspects were sentenced to five years imprisonment and £129,500 was seized, including £62,100 in cash that was taped under clothing when the suspects were trying to leave the country.

A Treasury source said:

“We will never tolerate fraud, error or waste in the welfare system – every pound of taxpayers' money should be spent with the same care with which working people spend their own money.

“That's why the Chancellor is doubling down on this next week – extending Targeted Case Reviews to save taxpayers billions and ensure help goes to those who genuinely need it and safeguard taxpayers' money so it can be invested in the public services we all deserve.

Nearly 13% of Universal Credit payments in the last Parliament were incorrect due to fraud and error – a truly unacceptable figure. To combat this, this Government announced the biggest ever package of measures to tackle fraud and error at last year's Budget.

This continued clampdown and other changes to be announced at Budget will ensure fairness to hard working taxpayers, who expect their money to be used responsibly.