Social Security Benefits: Payments

(asked on 12th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to reform benefits payments in order to protect recipients with complex needs from criminal exploitation.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 20th April 2021

The Department currently has no such plans.

We take every care to prevent incorrect payments being made and to ensure that benefits are paid to the correct recipients; and that their payments are accurate from the outset of a claim.

Operational staff also have instructions on how to alert DWP’s Serious Organised Crime (SOC) Team, who work closely with the National Crime Agency and the Home Office to investigate criminal activity, to potential cases of modern slavery, and receive guidance, for example, on raising awareness of the risks County Lines activity poses for our more vulnerable claimants who can be exploited by gangs.

Further information may be found in DWP’s Universal Credit (UC) Guidance which covers all aspects of UC and its administration, including claims and payments. Updated chapters are deposited in the House of Commons Library periodically by the DWP and can be found via the following link:

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/universal-credit-information-sources/

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