Starting off the new year strong! Jennifer Lopez, Anne Hathaway and more stars rang in 2023 with a bang.
20.12.2022 - 13:01 / dailyrecord.co.uk
More than 20 million people across the UK are claiming State Pension or benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to help with the additional costs of day-to-day living. However, earlier this year, the DWP shared details of a new £613 million plan to stop an estimated £4 billion being lost in fraud and error over the next five years.
Between 2021 and 2022, there have been 600 convictions for benefit fraud across the UK and the ‘Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System’ plan outlines how the DWP is creating a new 2,000-strong team dedicated to reviewing more than two million existing Universal Credit claims.
This new team will review the entitlements and circumstances of Universal Credit claims that the DWP deems are at risk of being incorrect, including suspicious cases which entered the system during the height of the pandemic - this review is expected to stop around £2 billion of losses due to fraud and error over the next five years.
The DWP reports that last year, there was an estimated £6.3 billion of welfare fraud, up from £2.8 billion from the year before, coupled with £2.1 billion of error, the combined loss as a result of fraud and error was £8.4 billion or 3.9% of benefit expenditure.
Investigations into claims can be made at anytime, even over the festive period.
The DWP’s definition of benefit fraud is when “someone obtains state benefit they are not entitled to or deliberately fails to report a change in their personal circumstances.”
The most common form of benefit fraud is when a person receives unemployment benefits while working. Another is when claimants state that they live alone, but are financially supported by a partner or spouse.
Failing to inform the state about a "change of
Starting off the new year strong! Jennifer Lopez, Anne Hathaway and more stars rang in 2023 with a bang.
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Good afternoon Insiders and a happy holiday to you all, Max Goldbart here seeing out the year. We’re inching slowly towards the holiday and have just got a quick summary of the week’s headlines and some Essentials for you this week. We’ll be taking a well-earned (we hope!) break next week but back all systems go on Friday January 6. Until then, our heartfelt thanks go out to all you Insider readers. We are nothing without you. Merry Xmas, Happy Chanukah and a Happy New Year.
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