The government counter-fraud function delivered £7.53bn in fraud savings across the public sector last year, the Cabinet Office has announced.
The figure, calculated by the Public Sector Fraud Authority, is the amount saved in the 2024-25 financial year through “aggressive fraud prevention and recovery”, the department said.
It includes £3.95bn generated through the expert compliance work of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, and £2bn secured by the Department for Work and Pensions through its dedicated counter-fraud resource.
The Cabinet Office said the savings secured are equivalent to the cost of employing an additional 230,000 nurses or repairing every pothole in the country.
The £7.53bn savings figure is for the entire government counter-fraud function – all counter-fraud efforts across the public sector. Coordinated by the PSFA, the function unites specialists from every level of government, working to identify and dismantle fraud across the entire public sector.
The Cabinet Office said these coordinated efforts “ensure that every pound of public money is spent where it is needed most, rather than ending up in the pockets of fraudsters”.
The department said the government counter-fraud function delivered the savings “through a relentless focus on prevention, recovery, and enforcement”. It said this included using innovative data-matching tools like the National Fraud Initiative to compare records across the public sector, which has enabled local authorities to identify fraudulent claims. The Cabinet Office said an example of this was Hillingdon Council, where 15 council houses have been recovered in the past year alone, and over 100 fraudulent housing applications removed from the waiting list.
To further accelerate these efforts, the government announced in the 2025 Budget that it was establishing a new Public Authorities Fraud Investigation and Enforcement Service by 2026-27. The new service will recruit highly skilled investigators specifically tasked with pursuing the recovery of fraud against the public sector.
The Cabinet Office said these measures are part of its long-term commitment to reduce the estimated £55bn to £81bn lost annually to fraud and error across government.
Cabinet Office minister Satvir Kaur said: “This government is making the biggest investment ever to tackle public sector fraud, and that investment is now delivering real results for the taxpayer. Every pound stolen by fraudsters is a pound taken away from our schools, our hospitals, and our communities.
“By using better data and hiring more expert investigators, we are finding and stopping fraud faster than ever before. We are relentless in our commitment to protect the public’s money and ensure it is used to deliver the high-quality services that people across Britain rely on every day.”