Fraudsters have been shameless in their attempts to claim counterfeit benefits by sending photoshopped images to suggest they live in the UK despite being abroad.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was overwhelmed with thousands of counterfeit documents in a period which it described as a "surge in Universal Credit" claims.
The DWP's counter fraud regional office, which is based in Newcastle, has been working through the claims, where digital forensic analysts and investigators have been combatting the dodgy claims which reached £8.6bn last year.
The DWP says it has made £2 billion worth of savings from "correction and prevention of fraud and error" in the last 12 months.
One picture showed a man crudely photoshopped into a scene outside a front door after being asked to send proof he lived in the UK.
Analysts also noticed the same lime green door appeared in photos sent in by a number of claimants trying to prove they lived in the UK.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson told Chronicle Live: "When the pandemic hit, we saw a surge in Universal Credit claims, which demanded an extraordinary response to help all those in urgent need.
"Regrettably, unscrupulous fraudsters took advantage but we are rooting them out and have already reviewed 900,000 claims.
"We made savings from correction and prevention of fraud and error of £2bn last year alone.
"But we’re going much further, through our robust fraud plan to prevent £2bn of loss over the next three years, and over £4bn over the next five years."
The department says it has launched a robust plan to drive down fraud and error from the benefits system, which will include introducing a new type of civil penalty for cases of fraud.
This is thanks to an extra £613m being invested to combat fraud and error over the next three years, with more than two million Universal Credit claims being reviewed and 2,000 trained specialists hired to review such claims.
A further £280m will be invested to increase levels of protection against fraud and error over the next two years, which will allow staff to review the majority of Universal Credit claims.
These plans will hopefully prevent an estimated loss of £2bn over the next three years and £4bn in the next five-year period.
DWP officials say there is no suggestion the people in the images have committed fraud, or are linked to the location shown but the pictures are examples of faked images sent to the department.
