Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total value is of outstanding benefit overpayments due to be recovered by his Department.

The latest preliminary figures for 2014/15 estimate Fraud and Error levels as £3.2 billion, or 1.9% of benefit expenditure. The net figure after recoveries is £2.3bn, or 1.4%. This means that DWP Fraud and Error is at its lowest ever level.

The total value of outstanding benefit overpayments as of 1 October 2015 is £2.5 billion. This represents less than 1.5% of the total benefit expenditure of £168 billion for 2014 – 2015.

The Department recovered over £1.3 billion of debt in 2014-2015, including benefit debts.