Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 33
33
In response to COVID-19, many staff within the Department’s Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate were...
Conclusion
In response to COVID-19, many staff within the Department’s Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate were redeployed, meaning the Department temporarily paused compliance work.69 As it restarts its compliance activity the Department should be aware of the lessons from NAO’s Investigation into overpayments of Carer’s Allowance in 2019. 62 Q 33 63 Committee of Public Accounts, Universal Credit, Session 2017–19, HC 1183, 26 October 2018, recommendations 2 and 3 64 Gov.uk, Universal Credit guidance (eligibility) webpage, https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/eligibility (accessed at 05/10/20) 65 C&AG’s Report, Universal Credit: getting to first payment, Session 2019–21, HC 376, 10 July 2020, pages 13, 29, 30 66 DWP ARAC 2019–20, page 76 67 C&AG’s Report, Investigation into errors in Employment and Support Allowance, Session 2017–19, HC 837, 21 March 2018, pages 6 and 8 68 Official Statistics, January 2020: ESA underpayments: Forecast numbers affected, forecast expenditure and progress on checking, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esa-underpayments-progress-on-checking- january-2020/january-2020-esa-underpayments-forecast-numbers-affected-forecast-expenditure-and-progress- on-checking, (accessed on 15/10/20). 69 DWP ARAC 2019–20, page 193 Department for Work and Pensions Accounts 2019–20 17 This found that the Department’s failure to commit sufficient resources to detecting overpayments and a backlog in referrals led some overpayments to not be detected for years, so that when they were detected, the claimant owed so much that they could not reasonably hope to repay it: for example, at the extreme end of this, 133 individuals owed over £20,000 which will take over 34 years to pay back if it is deducted from their benefits. The NAO also found that even when recovery plans were established, it took a significant period for the backlog to be managed back down to normal levels; in September 2017 the Department introduced its first recovery plan for new Carer’s Allowa
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: July 2021 3.2 The department accepts that its response to the COVID-19 pandemic has presented an opportunity to evaluate the controls it has in place and assess the impact of those controls in terms of fraud and error prevention. 3.3 During the COVID-19 pandemic, the department has seen a massive increase in demand and paid benefit to an additional three million claimants. Restrictions meant that the department could not routinely see people face to face and carry out its normal checks during this time. 3.4 The department introduced easements (changes to its processes) to ensure that it paid people who needed support during this period. This meant introducing Trust and Protect principles around key areas of verification; namely identity, eligibility and accuracy elements. This meant placing more reliance on claimants’ declarations. However, the department quickly introduced mitigations to strengthen the new process and ensure that sufficient and proportionate checks were in place. Initial forecasts indicate that this significantly reduced the department’s exposure to fraud and error. 3.5 The department is working on separating out the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and potential losses from easements, along with savings from subsequent agreed changes to easements, mitigations and retrospective action. These numbers will be quite distinct from existing fraud and error levels. 3.6 The normal fraud and error sampling exercise (and publication) will set out the levels of fraud and error in Universal Credit. However, the department will in addition set out in the Annual Report and Accounts the impact the pandemic has had on Universal Credit losses.