Rachel Reeves is ‘doubling down’ on her bid to stamp out benefit fraud after £6.5bn lost | UK | News
Rachel Reeves will “double down” on her mission to fight welfare fraud next week and announce the expansion of the task force to stamp it out. In his budget, the Chancellor will announce that the group tasked with cracking down on fraudulent universal credit claims will continue with the aim of saving £1.2bn by March 2031.
It follows a record loss of £6.5bn to universal credit fraud last year and an estimated £9.5bn to take advantage of overpayments and faulty applicants.
A Treasury source said: “We will never tolerate fraud, error or waste in the benefits system. Every taxpayer pound must be spent with the same care as working people spend their own money.”
“The Chancellor will double down on this next week by expanding Targeted Case Reviews to save taxpayers billions of dollars and ensure aid goes to those who really need it.”
The Targeted Case Review scheme will be extended until 2031 in a bid to reduce the spiraling benefit bill. Official forecasts show that the cost of incapacity and disability benefits will reach a staggering £100 billion a year by 2030.
As of January this year, the number of Britons claiming universal credit was 7.5 million; This figure was 6.4 million compared to the same period last year. There has also been a rise in the number of Brits claiming incapacity and disability benefits worth at least £10,000 a year.
The government’s clampdown on benefits comes as Labor plans to require banks to monitor pensioners’ bank accounts to eliminate erroneous payments, The Telegraph reported.
This would come under the new Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, which was debated twice in the House of Commons earlier this month.
The scheme will target those receiving universal credit and employment benefits, but Britons receiving pension credit will also be included.
This is because there is an estimated £610 million overpayment in pension credit in 2024 due to DWP errors; £270 million is due to fraud.
The Chancellor hopes £9.6bn will be recovered by 2030 when the bill comes into force.
