Recommendation 32

DWP also told us it did not want to reveal when it planned to go live with machine learning on a large scale to avoid informing potential fraudsters, but added it was 65 Qq 84–90 66 Q 90; DWP ARA 2022–23, page 308 67 Qq 84–85 68 DWP ARA 2022–23, pages 102, 308 69 Committee of Public Accounts, The Department for Work and Pensions’ Accounts 2021–22 – Fraud and error in the benefit system, Twenty-Sixth Report of Session 2022–23, HC 44, 9 November 2022 70 DWP0007; DWP0008 71 Q 101 72 Qq 101–103 73 DWP ARA 2022–23, page 309 74 Q 103 The Department for Work & Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2022–23 19 working closely with the relevant authorities and that Ministers would be aware of its plans.75 However, DWP claimed that it is “taking it very slowly” with regards to rolling out machine learning. It explained that its pilot algorithm to detect fraud in Universal Credit advances did not work very well at first and needed to be tested and iterated using a small number of cases before being released for wider use. It added that it intends to follow this approach going forward and will not roll out new algorithms more widely until they have reached a level of accuracy that avoids unnecessarily holding up legitimate payments.76