Benefit fraud billions

Almost £3bn worth of benefits were fraudulently claimed in 2019/20

BENEFIT fraud cost the UK taxpayer £2.8bn last year - with Universal Credit accounting for the biggest share of wrong claims.

It's an increase of £700m compared to the previous 12 months, 2018/19, when £2.1bn was fraudulently claimed, according to new figures from the Department of Work and Pensions.

The amount claimed fraudulently is higher than in previous years, however the DWP said the way in which the figures are calculated changed last year meaning year-on-year comparisons aren't possible.

Universal Credit is the source of more fraud than any other form of benefit.

The benefit was brought in with the aim of making claims simpler by merging six different benefits income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance, incomerelated employment and support allowance, housing benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit into one.

A total of £1.39bn was fraudulently claimed in Universal Credit in 2019/20.

That's compared to £680 in housing benefit, £250m in employment and support allowance and £130m in pension credits.

While fraudulent claims cost the public purse a huge sum of money, they only account for a small fraction of the overall benefits bill.

The £2.8bn only represents 1.4% of the amount being paid out in benefits.

This does change by benefit type, however.

The DWP's figures suggest 7.6% of the amount paid out in Universal Credit was done so through fraud.

That's compared to 3.7% in housing benefit and 2.5% in pension credit.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Latest figures show that fraud and error overpayments are less than 2.5% of benefit spending, and we have a strong track record on recouping debt, recovering £1 billion a year in overpayments.

“A very small minority attempt to abuse the system and we continue to relentlessly pursue these people using the full range of available powers, including prosecution through the courts.

“Our detection systems make use of increasingly sophisticated techniques to identify potential discrepancies and thwart those seeking to rip off taxpayers.”