Simon Kirby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Kirby on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to prevent benefit fraud; and if he will make a statement.

Esther McVey

The level of fraud in the benefit system is relatively low at 0.7% of total benefit expenditure. However, any loss to the public purse due to fraud is unacceptable, which is why the Department is working across Government – and with the private sector – to further reduce the level of loss due to benefit fraud.

We have made considerable progress since the Fraud and Error Strategy was published in 2010. In terms of prevention, this includes using Real Time Information in the Universal Credit pathfinders to prevent fraud and error on new claims before payments are issued. In addition we recently announced a package of measures which, amongst other things include extending these checks to other benefits.

We are also testing the effectiveness of communications to help change attitudes to benefit fraud and to encourage people to routinely report changes of circumstances.