Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride MP has said fraud in the benefits system has fallen 10 per cent since the implementation of a new £613 million plan to fight fraud in the welfare system in May 2022. He explained how benefits provide “a safety net for vulnerable people, but nobody should be allowed to abuse it”.
In a new video shared on social media, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) boss outlined several key measures are in place to help “deliver savings of over £9 billion over the coming years”. This includes recruiting 1,000 new agents to identify errors in existing Universal Credit claims and “bolstering” the counter fraud team by 1,400 investigators.
The latest national statistics confirm in the last year fraud and error rates in 2023 fell to 3.6 per cent (£8.3 billion) from 4.0 per cent (£8.7 billion), with Universal Credit losses falling from 14.7 per cent (£5,920 million) to 12.8 per cent (£5,540 million).
