Recommendation 3

The success of the Department’s strategy to bring down fraud and error is dependent on highly uncertain assumptions. The Department has set out its strategy to tackle fraud and error in Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System. This includes a £613 million investment in counter-fraud activities. The plan is dependent on the Department’s recruitment and training of enough people to implement its fraud counter-fraud activities in a difficult hiring environment, while simultaneously making headcount reductions in line with wider cuts to civil service staffing. The legislation needed to grant new powers the Department needs to deliver its counter- fraud strategy was not included in the Queen’s speech. Without new powers to access third-party data it will have limited ability to crack down on fraud driven by claimants misreporting the value of their savings or capital. The Department will be dependent on close cross-government working, including with the new Public Sector Fraud Authority, and is reliant on HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) progress in collecting more timely information about self-employment earnings to address this driver of Universal Credit overpayments. Recommendation: As part of its Treasury Minute response, the Department should set out in detail how its counter-fraud plan would be impacted if it is not able to get the staff, powers or HMRC data that it needs, and what its contingency plans would be in these circumstances.