Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefits claims were suspended under the Risk Review Process in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020, (d) 2021 and (e) 2022.

The department’s Risk Review Team (RRT) was created in 2020, as a direct response to threats identified by the department’s Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service (IRIS). A breakdown of cases suspended as a result of the RRT process is therefore only available from the financial year ending March 2021.

In the last three financial years the number of cases suspended as a result of the process are as follows:

• 2020/2021 – 152,101 cases

• 2021/2022 – 31,445 cases

• 2022/2023 – 6,244 cases

We do not suspend claims lightly, and where we do, it will be clear to claimants what actions they need to take to resolve matters. Where a customer does contact us, and provides the information requested, we have processes in place to ensure people’s claims are put back into payment as soon as possible, and any arrears that are due are paid.