Recommendation 33

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