Universal Credit
(asked on 27th February 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value was of Universal Credit (a) underpayments and (b) overpayments made due to errors by his Department in each year since 2019.
The department’s national statistics on ‘Fraud and Error in the Benefit System’ include estimates of UC official errors overpaid and underpaid. This is expressed in terms of both value, and as a percentage of cases with error.
To be clear, the percentages of cases with error reflects the average cases incorrect at one time, rather than the total number of errors over the whole year. We express this as a percentage, rather than as a whole number.
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2021 to 2022 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Year | Estimated percentage of UC cases with underpayments caused by Official Error | Estimated UC expenditure underpaid due to Official Error | Estimated percentage of UC cases with overpayments caused by Official Error | Estimated UC expenditure overpaid due to Official Error |
2019/20 | 2.6% | 0.5% (£90 million) | 4.1% | 1.3% (£250 million) |
2020/21 | 1.7% | 0.4% (£140 million) | 2.2% | 0.9% (£330 million) |
2021/22 | 2.3% | 0.3% (£140 million) | 2.6% | 0.7% (£270 million) |
The DWP has taken significant steps to ensure the accuracy of benefit payments and the vast majority of benefit expenditure is paid correctly. Our Targeted Case Review initiative will review 2 million UC cases over the next 5 years, checking entitlement and helping ensure people are getting the right amount of benefit.
The department remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with benefit debt deductions and encourages customers experiencing hardship to contact the DWP to discuss their repayment plan.