Benefit scams and errors hit record £4.5bn

pAyMENtS to benefits cheats and benefits paid in error soared by more than 20 per cent to a record £4.5billion last year.

One pound in every ten claimed in Universal credit should not have been paid, the spending watchdog revealed yesterday. it warned that losses are likely to rise again due to the virus pandemic.

the missing money is enough to pay for 750,000 NhS hip operations or to build two new big-city general hospitals.

A National Audit Office report said £1.4billion was overpaid to claimants who under-declared their income and another £910million to those who failed to declare savings. Fraud and error rates for Universal credit rose from 8.7 per cent to 9.4 per cent year on year, and the report said the number of Britons claiming the benefit almost doubled after lockdown.

in February there were 2.6 million UK households on Universal credit. From March to May the Department of Work and pensions had 2.4 million new claims.

National Audit Office chief Gareth Davies said: ‘Fraud and error have a real cost, both for those who face deductions from their income due to overpayments and because it reduces the public funds available for other purposes.’

Meg hillier, the Labour Mp who heads the commons public accounts committee, added: ‘Even before covid, fraud and error was at an all-time high.

‘the department must plug the holes that have opened up in the benefits system... it needs to do more to protect the taxpayer, including rapid identification and investigation of suspicious claims.’