Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

(asked on 19th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information the Risk Review Team must provide to benefit claimants when it takes the decision to suspend their claim pending an investigation.


Answered by
David Rutley Portrait
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 30th November 2021

The Risk Review Team (RRT) was created in May 2020 as a direct response to threats identified by the Department’s Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service (IRIS).

IRIS brings together the Department’s Risk and Intelligence Service, our Cyber Resilience Team and our co-ordination of our response to Serious and Organised Crime activity.

Last year, IRIS coordinated the detection of, and response to, fraud risks from organised crime groups seeking to exploit COVID-19, which meant that systematic attacks on the benefit system were detected and shut down. In this way cyber colleagues prevented an attack by organised criminals in which would have seen £1.9 billion in benefits being paid to people trying to scam the system.

The role of the Risk Review Team is to review and take action on cases identified by IRIS as being a high fraud risk.

A monthly breakdown of cases where benefit was re-instated following suspension is not available, however approximately 3% of cases reviewed under the Risk Review Process have been reinstated. All other cases will remain suspended pending investigation or closure.

The average length of claim suspension because of the Risk Review Team activity is not available. However, the length of time that a claim is suspended is largely dependent on the engagement of the claimant and the timely provision of any information requested.

Where a customer does contact us and provides the information requested, we have processes in place to ensure people’s payments are put back into payment as soon as possible.

The Risk Review Team does not capture demographic data on any claims they suspend and, as such, no information can be provided on nationality.

Any Universal Credit claim that is suspended as a consequence of the Risk Review Team activity is notified by journal and text messages, along with a means by which a claimant can contact the Department and speak to the agent responsible for that case.

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