A Department for Work and Pensions taskforce has saved £1bn in incorrect benefit payments by spotting and correcting historic errors, the department has said.
The Targeted Case Review team, which was introduced in 2022 to detect errors in Universal Credit payments, has now assessed more than a million claims. The savings are made by identifying historic errors in payments and preventing future overpayments that could cause benefit recipients to rack up debts to DWP.
The team looks for both under and overpayments. The reviews are not “designed to detect attempts to deceive”, DWP said, but reviews can lead to a referral to the department’s counter-fraud team if investigators suspect fraud.
The milestone shows how the pace of reviews has ramped up since its first year of operation, when it reviewed around 25,000 claims.
DWP has nearly doubled the team’s size since last July. It reached its full contingent of 5,930 staff in February.
However, it has attracted controversy for its use of outsourced staff to make up the numbers. Plans to outsource up to 2,500 jobs were first outlined in 2023 and confirmed last year. In an update on its 2022 Fraud Plan, published a year ago, DWP said it would be “joined by a commercial provider on a temporary basis to help us reach this target number of staff [6,000] by March 2025”.
The team, which uses "enhanced data analytics to develop new ways to prevent and detect fraud", was originally set up as a five-year initiative, but the October Budget extended its lifespan by two years to 2029-30.
Transformation minister Andrew Western said the £1bn target “could not have been reached without this significant boost to staffing numbers – meaning we now have forecasted savings of £13.6bn by 2030”.
“This is a vital programme, not only ensuring overpayments are corrected but also makes certain people who are being underpaid receive the money they are entitled to,” he said.
“We will not tolerate fraud, error or waste and are committed to safeguard taxpayers’ money so it can be invested in the public services we all deserve.”