Recommendation 8

We have repeatedly recommended that the Department should set targets for fraud and error reduction across the benefits it administers, most recently as part of our examination of the Department’s 2021–22 Annual Report and Accounts.12 In its response the Department reconfirmed its intention to set an overall target for fraud and error reduction by Spring 2022, once it was clear on its funding in the Spending Review.13 However, in May 2022 the Department wrote to us explaining that it was not in a position to set a robust, meaningful target because of uncertainty about the baseline level of fraud for post-COVID benefit claims. It added that it believed the savings generated by its £613 million investment in counter-fraud measures would provide a framework against which its future fraud and error performance can be judged.14