The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has 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.
The ‘Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System’ plan outlines how the DWP will create 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 plan reports that last year, there was an estimated £6.3 billion of welfare fraud, up from £2.8 billion from the year before.
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