The Department for Work and Pensions is planning to check the bank statements of millions of Universal Credit claimants. It is carrying out so-called targeted case reviews to help reduce fraud and errors in the system.
In a new update, the DWP says it has recruited 2,000 dedicated case review officers to assess Universal Credit claims, along with 1,400 new fraud prevention professionals. It plans to expand its case review taskforce to 6,000 and says “millions” of Universal Credit claims will be checked over the next four years.
The latest figures from April 2024 show that 6.67 million people across Britain are claiming Universal Credit. This includes almost 184,000 in Birmingham – the highest of any local authority – of which 53,000 are in work and 131,000 are economically inactive. Birmingham’s figures include a high of 29,784 claimants in Ladywood, 25,816 in Hodge Hill and just over 20,000 each in Yardley, Perry Barr and Erdington.
The process of assessing claims involves asking people to show ID and provide four months of bank statements. They must also provide documentation to prove their housing costs, income, savings, self-employment, children, childcare costs, health conditions, student loans and caring responsibilities. There is also a telephone interview and failure to attend could result in the benefit being stopped.
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The DWP says it has already assessed hundreds of thousands of claims this year and found irregularities in around a quarter of them that needed to be rectified. It explained: “This year we have assessed over 200,000 claims, finding and correcting misstatements on almost 50,000 claims, and prevented individuals from building up debt. This included finding unreported capital of more than £16,000, wrongly declared self-employment expenses and undisclosed second homes.
“This demonstrates the vital role Targeted Case Reviews play in addressing unreported changes in circumstances. Customers are reminded to keep us informed of changes in their circumstances so they can avoid unnecessary debt. People are also being those who try to abuse the social security system are arrested.”
It says safeguards are in place to support claimants and detect signs of vulnerabilities and complex needs that may impact on someone’s ability to manage their claim, indicate changes and report up-to-date information about their circumstances that may affect the extent to which they are entitled to receive.
The DWP said: “We are tripling the size of our teams that assess millions of Universal Credit claims for potential fraud or error and we estimate this alone will save £6.6 billion by 2027/28.” In total, the Department plans to save £9 billion by that date through a comprehensive approach to tackling fraud in the social security system.
It added: “We are making progress in our fight against fraud. In 2022/23, we reduced fraud and error in the social security system by 10 percent – bringing the fraud and error rate as a percentage of benefit spending from 4 percent to 3.6 percent has fallen – and we have also saved the taxpayer £1.1 billion on our dedicated anti-fraud activities. Combined with our controls, we estimate that our controls and activities will have prevented almost £18 billion in losses in 2022/23.
“The Department subsequently set a target of saving £1.3 billion by 2023/24 and initial savings estimates for 2023/24 indicate that we have exceeded that target, saving £1.35 billion through our anti-fraud activities. However, since the pandemic, we have been overpaid by over £8 billion a year due to fraud and error. This is money that could have been used for other public services such as schools or hospitals or to reduce the national debt.”
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