Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many telephone operators work on the Universal Credit helpline by the nationality of those operators.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not centrally hold the nationality of Universal Credit call handlers and to provide the information would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in his Department were employed in tackling benefit fraud in (a) 2025 and (b) 2020.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since Autumn Budget 24, including the new announcements at Autumn Budget 25, the Government have committed to gross savings of £14.6bn up to the end of 2030/31 from fraud, error and debt activity in GB.
The Government is committed to ensuring that public funds are spent appropriately and deliver value for taxpayers. Fraud against the welfare system undermines public services and takes resources away from those who need them most.
Within the Department for Work and Pensions, tackling fraud and error is a shared responsibility across all roles, from Work Coaches in Jobcentres to colleagues in Service Centres. Because this work is embedded throughout the organisation, it is not possible to provide a precise breakdown of staff numbers or costs dedicated solely to preventing and detecting fraud
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has considered restricting access to non-contributory benefits for non-UK nationals until they have completed a minimum qualifying period of lawful residence and tax contribution.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 20 November my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary launched a consultation on proposals for a fairer pathway to settlement, the point at which foreign nationals generally gain access to public funds. These plans include doubling the standard qualifying period for settlement from 5 to 10 years, with the opportunity to reduce this period based on their contributions to the UK economy and society and longer periods for those who contribute less.
The consultation also covers proposals that benefits might not be available to those who have settled status, reserving them, instead, for those who have earned British citizenship.
You can find more details in here: “Restoring Order and Control: A statement on the government’s asylum and returns policy (accessible)”, and in “Open consultation: Earned settlement”.
In conjunction with these reforms, my Department will consult in due course on a change to taxpayer-funded benefits to prioritise access for those who are making an economic contribution to the UK.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what mechanisms are in place to ensure that individuals whose immigration status no longer entitles them to public funds are automatically removed from benefit systems; and how many such removals have taken place in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit systems carry out daily automatic checks against Home Office data to identify any changes in immigration status, and subsequently, DWP caseworkers stop claims where the individual no longer has an immigration status that permits recourse to public funds.
However, the department does not hold data on the number of benefit claims disallowed after a review.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of identified benefit fraud cases in which the claimant was a non-UK national in the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Monetary Value of Fraud and Error Statistics are not disaggregated by nationality and immigration status.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department routinely records the nationality and immigration status of claimants in cases of proven benefit fraud.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Monetary Value of Fraud and Error Statistics are not disaggregated by nationality and immigration status.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases of benefit fraud identified in the last five years involved individuals whose immigration status was later found to be (a) overstayer, (b) illegal entrant or (c) failed asylum seeker.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Monetary Value of Fraud and Error Statistics are not disaggregated by nationality and immigration status.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the value of benefit expenditure paid to non-UK nationals in the last financial year by benefit type.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish an annual breakdown of benefit fraud and error by nationality and immigration status of the claimant.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Monetary Value of Fraud and Error Statistics are not disaggregated by nationality and immigration status.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-UK nationals are in receipt of (a) Universal Credit, (b) legacy working-age benefits and (c) child-related benefits by nationality.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes Universal Credit (UC) immigration status and nationality statistics as part of the Universal Credit statistics publication. These statistics can be found on https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-statistics-29-april-2013-to-9-october-2025. The number of people on Universal Credit who are non – Common Travel Area nationals, for each month from April 2022 to October 2025, is in Table 1 of the following data tables: Universal Credit immigration status and nationality statistics to October 2025.
The information requested for parts (b) and (c) are not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.