A new team is being set up by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to crack down on benefits fraud and errors. For those on benefits, claims can be investigated at any time - even over the Christmas and New Year period - and this can include monitoring bank accounts or social media activity or other surveillance.
Earlier this year, the DWP outlined a new plan aimed at stopping an estimated £4 billion being lost to fraud and error over the next five years. As part of the plan, it has created a team of 2,000 staff to review the entitlements and circumstances of claims that the DWP considers at risk of being incorrect, reports the Daily Record.
More than two million existing Universal Credit claims will be reviewed - including "suspicious" cases which entered the benefits system at the height of the Covid pandemic. According to the DWP, there was an estimated £6.3 billion worth of welfare fraud last year - up from £2.8 billion from the year before - as well as £2.1 billion worth of error.
