Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much and what proportion of fraud and error was (a) prevented upfront and (b) detected after the event in the latest period for which data is available.

Our estimate is that the Department prevented up front £17.1bn of fraud and error and detected £0.6bn after the event in the financial year 2022/23.

Further details can be found in the Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23, link below.

Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 for the year ended 31 March 2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

DWP will update these figures in the Annual Report and Accounts for financial year 23/24, expected to be published in Summer 2024.