Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 30
6th Report - DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023-24
Published 31 Jan 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023-24 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
DWP set out its current plan to tackle fraud and error in its strategy Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, published in May 2022. Its initiatives include a programme of Targeted Case Reviews to verify around 8 million existing UC claims.61 During 2023–24, Targeted Case Reviews delivered savings of £90 million, falling short of DWP’s expected savings of £115 million.62 52 C&AG’s Report (customer service), para 2.18 53 C&AG’s Report (customer service), para 2.12 54 C&AG’s Report (customer service), para 1.7 55 C&AG’s Report (customer service), paras 2.26, 2.27 56 Q 49 57 DCSA0001 58 C&AG’s Report (on accounts), para 13 59 C&AG’s Report (on accounts), para 14 60 C&AG’s Report (on accounts), para 16 61 C&AG’s Report (on accounts), para 32 62 C&AG’s Report (on accounts), para 33 15
From: Public Accounts Committee, 6th Report - DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023-24 (HC 354), 31 January 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations in this response, but disagrees with the recommendation that it set out when it expects to meet its PIP processing target.
- On PIP claim times, the government disagrees with the recommendation, stating the department "has to balance speed against the risk of inaccuracy". It says the Health Transformation Programme will modernise PIP "in the longer-term".
- On ESA calls, the government agrees and says it is recruiting 160 colleagues by March 2025. It states that customer wait times for ESA enquiries "will be improved by September 2025".
- On counter fraud, the government agrees and says that from April 2025 the department "will begin progressive deployment of an additional 3,000 staff", expecting the full number to be in role by 2027-28.
- On machine learning, the government agrees and gives a target implementation date of summer 2025. It says the department "will support an in-confidence session" on the 2024 fairness analysis assessment.