Universal Credit claimants could miss out on payments under a new fraud detection process being trialled by the government, warned campaigners.
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is testing the use of a machine learning algorithm to detect cases of benefits fraud. The algorithm analyses historical data to predict which cases are likely to be fraudulent in the future, without being explicitly programmed by a human.
But while campaigners support the crackdown on fraud, there are concerns that using a machine-learning algorithm to flag potentially fraudulent benefits claims could mean some people unfairly miss their payments.
