Recommendation 24

In written evidence Cifas told us that it believed government’s failure to mandate industry standard fraud significantly contributed to the vast scale of fraud in COVID-19 support schemes.66 BEIS told us that it “found cross-Whitehall collaboration incredibly useful” on the Bounce Back Loan Scheme and local authority grant schemes. It used data held by HMRC to retrospectively check applications for the Bounce Back Loan Scheme which helped banks spot potentially fraudulent applications.67 DWP told us that going forward increased data sharing could enable it to identify changes in claimant’s eligibility for benefits and enable changes to be applied across all benefits before a payment is made, preventing errors from occurring and reducing the need for recovery. DWP told us this “ideal” could be achieved using PAYE system data to automatically adjust universal credit payments.68 DWP also explained that it is considering the use of additional powers, for example data sharing with banks, which would have to be done in collaboration across government.69 62 Qq 78-79 63 Q 80 64 UK Steel Production: Greensill Capital, Volume 691: debated on Thursday 25 March 2021 65 Fraud Advisory Panel submission, page 6 66 Cifas submission, page 2. 67 Q 48 68 Q 86 69 Q 50 Fraud and Error 17 3 Responding to fraud and error