Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to work with credit reference agencies on addressing benefit fraud and error.

We already use credit reference agency data in the Fraud and Error Service on a case by case basis to support investigations, for example once high suspicion has already been identified which could be via a Hotline allegation or staff referral for example. In debt recovery the use of credit reference agency data enables us to have more informed discussions with the debtor and to reach agreement on rates of repayment that are sustainable for the debtor and meet our needs.