Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department provides to the (a) risk review team and (b) enhanced review team on suspension and termination.

All members of ERT are provided with full training and with guidance which is clear about how case suspensions and terminations (closures) should be handled.

If a suspension is put in place on a claim, the claimant is made fully aware of any actions they need to take and information they need to provide in order to progress the review of their case.

A clear explanation is also provided to the claimant about the potential consequences should they fail to fully comply with these requirements within the required timescales. The guidance also ensures that ERT team members consider potential customer vulnerability throughout the duration of any intervention.

As the NAO have reported in the Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, ‘The majority of 2022-23 savings (£650 million) came from the Enhanced Review Team (ERT), which provides a rapid response service for detailed checking of high-risk Universal Credit claims before they go into payment. These estimates also suggest that preventative actions have a much higher level of return than investigating fraud and error after it has occurred.’