Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce benefits fraud.

The Department has strong controls in place to tackle fraud and deliver savings. Since the Autumn Budget 2024 we have committed to delivering gross savings of £14.6bn up to the end of 2030 – 31 from fraud, error and debt activity.

Our activities include investments to deploy up to 3,000 additional staff within counter fraud teams, the continuation of Targeted Case Reviews (TCR) in Universal Credit to check claims at risk of being incorrect, the implementation of Pension Credit Claim Reviews (PCCR) and the introduction of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 (PAFER) which introduces new powers to better identify, prevent and deter fraud and error as well as continuing to prosecute those who commit benefit fraud.

Overall, levels of benefit fraud are the lowest since the pandemic and currently stand at 2.2%, compared to a peak of 3.0% in FYE 2022. This evidences the Department has strong controls in place to tackle fraud and deliver savings.