Department for Work and Pensions annual report and accounts 2019-20

As the Department takes on a set of unprecedented challenges arising from COVID-19 it is more important than ever that my qualification is not seen as business as usual and the Department responds in a cost-effective way to minimise risks of fraud and error. As a priority, the Department should:
• set out its expectations for unwinding the changes made to the administration of benefits, introduced as part of the response to COVID-19, and its assessment of their impact on the overall level of fraud and error; and

• clarify how it will measure fraud and error for 2020-21 and in the longer term, to both inform its fraud and error activities and support accountability to Parliament.

As the immediate response to the pandemic passes, it should:
• iteratively improve and measure the effectiveness of its controls so that it can reduce fraud and error and demonstrate that its controls are cost-effective;

• establish a better mechanism for informing Parliament of the potential impact on fraud and error of future changes made to benefit policy and operations; and

• set annual targets for the gross level of fraud and error by benefit so that it can show the progress of its initiatives to reduce fraud and error.