Recommendation 17

We have previously recommended that the Department should communicate to Parliament what additional powers or changes to legislation it needed to improve controls on specific fraud and error risks.30 The Department set out the new powers it believes it requires in Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, which includes greater access to third- party banking data which would enable it to crack down on fraud caused by claimants misreporting the value of their savings and capital.31 We noted that this legislation was not reflected in the most recent Queen’s speech and asked what impact this would have on the Department’s plan for reducing fraud and error. The Department told us that the legislation strand of its strategy was a longer-term goal that would take time to bring into 26 DWP ARA 2021–22, page 232 27 Qq 56, 59 28 Qq 57–59 29 Qq 7–8 30 Committee of Public Accounts, Department for Work and Pensions Accounts 2019–20, Twenty-Sixth Report of Session 2019–21, HC 681, 18 November 2020 31 Department for Work & Pensions, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, CP 679, May 2022 The Department for Work and Pensions’ Accounts 2021–22 – Fraud and error in the benefits system 15 effect, even if the legislation were passed immediately. It added that it definitely needed the expanded powers in the longer-term to enable it to prevent fraud relating to the value of claimant savings and capital, but that its plan for this Spending Review period was focused on detection and removal of fraud and error already in the welfare system through its £613 million investment.32