Recommendation 11

The Department’s fraud and error statistics show that the biggest growth area for Universal Credit overpayments in 2021–22 was claimants ‘failing to provide evidence or engage with the process’. This category applies to cases where the claimant had given up their benefit entitlement rather than fully engage in the Department’s fraud and 12 Committee of Public Accounts, Department for Work and Pensions Accounts 2020–21 – Fraud and error in the benefits system, Twenty-Fifth Report of Session 2021–22, HC 633, 17 November 2021 13 HM Treasury, Treasury Minutes - Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty- Second to the Twenty-Sixth reports from Session 2021–22, CP 603, January 2022 14 Correspondence from Peter Schofield CB, Permanent Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions, Re: Fraud and Error Targets, 18 May 2022 15 Qq 41–42 16 Q 43 17 Qq 44–45 18 Q 18; DWP ARA 2021–22, pages 60, 76 19 Q 22 12 The Department for Work and Pensions’ Accounts 2021–22 – Fraud and error in the benefits system error measurement exercise, and where the Department was unsure of the reason why. Claimants failing to engage or provide evidence accounted for 14.4% (£852 million) of all Universal Credit overpayments in 2021–22, an increase of £328 million compared with 2020–21. The Department assumes for statistical purposes that all claims in this category are fraudulent.20 We asked the Department whether it considered non-engagement as a red-flag for fraud, or as proof of fraudulent activity. It told us that the logic underlying was based on the principle that “non-engagement means that your money stops” and its assumption was that a legitimate claimant would need the money and be highly motivated to engage and keep their claim active.21