Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish data on current levels of social security fraud; and what steps he is taking to reduce social security fraud.

Data on the levels of fraud in the benefit system is published annually, with the latest figures available via the following link:

Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2021 to 2022 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Our Fraud Plan, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, published on 19 May 2022, sets out our plans for reducing the level of fraud and error in the welfare system by:

• Investing in DWP’s frontline counter-fraud professionals and data analytics, including recruiting 2,000 trained specialists to review over two million Universal Credit cases.
• Creating new legal powers to investigate potential fraud and punish fraudsters (subject to legislation).
• Bringing together the full force of the public and private sectors to keep one step ahead.

The full document can be found at: Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System-GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).

The Government is investing £1.4bn of funding over the next three years to combat fraud and error. This includes additional invest to save funding, which will help stop over £2.0bn of loss in fraud and error during this time.