MPs say £8.3bn overpaid in 2020-21 due to fraud and errors, nearly double previous year’s total

The Department for Work and Pensions has lost control of universal credit fraud, according to an influential cross-party committee after the latest figures showed billions of pounds were lost to scams during the first year of the pandemic.

The public accounts committee (PAC) said benefits fraud and error hit record levels in 2020-21, when £8.3bn was overpaid, up from £4.5bn on the previous year. These overpayments accounted for 7.5% of the DWP’s non-pension benefits spending.

Continue reading…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Private UK care homes’ profit margins soared in pandemic, research finds

Amid staffing crisis and warnings that system is ‘deeply flawed’ companies caring…

PM dodges MPs again as junior minister takes the flak | John Crace

Boris Johnson, a man who claims to love democracy, will do anything…

Middle East crisis live: US military says it destroyed a Houthi anti-ship missile site hours after oil tanker attack

Eight hours after the oil tanker was hit, the US military said…