DWP scandal as £1 in every £15 spent on Universal Credit and benefits lost to fraud or error: 'Unacceptable!'

This makes up for 6.7 per cent of total benefit expenditure with the majority of the wasteful cost being blamed on fraud.

According to the DWP's own figures, around £7.3billion was lost to benefit scammers while the rest of the loss can be attributed to mistakes made by either the Government or claimant.

These figures were highlighted in a report by the public accounts committee, which determined the DWP was guilty of a "dangerous mindset" when it comes to addressing fraud.

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Despite the department citing fraud being an issue in wider society, MPs noted that the level of benefit fraud in the UK has reached "unacceptably high" and urged the Government to "improve defences".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have pledged to clamp down on benefit scammers and have floated an overhaul of current DWP rules to do so.

Pensions minister Liz Kendall has introduced reforms to Jobcentres to help people get back into work and those found guilty of benefit fraud could be handed penalties, such as driving bans.

Furthermore, the Chancellor has promised to stick to plans introduced by the Conservative Party to slash £3billion in spending for incapacity benefits by 2028.

The DWP outlined a plan to address fraud and error in May 2022, which included a series of "targeted case reviews" to verify around eight million existing Universal Credit claims.

However, the department did meet its expected savings target of £115million in 2023-24 and was only able to get back £90million.

Despite this setback, the DWP told MPs this was only "a blip" and blamed staffing pressures on these goals not being met.

The department has noted it will be using an additional £110million in funding from the new Government to complete more targeted reviews of claimants.

However, Conservative Party chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said it had “little sympathy for the DWP’s argument that this rise is driven by a growing propensity for fraud in society”.

Furthermore, the DWP recently lost a case in the High Court over proposed changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) which are used to evaluate whether disabled people are eligible for the extra health component of Universal Credit or Employment Support Allowance and have restricted work conditionality.

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The High Court found that the DWP acted unlawfully by portraying controversial benefit assessment reforms as a way to support disabled people into work, without making clear that the proposals also included "substantial" cuts to disability benefits and that saving money was the primary motivator of the changes.

Ken Butler, Disability Rights UK's welfare rights and policy adviser, said: "The DWP consultation has been found to be unlawful as it was 'misleading', 'rushed' and 'unfair'.

"The ruling that cost savings were at least one if not the 'central basis' that was the impetus to the proposed reforms should be a wake-up call for the current Government, who seem intent on bringing similar proposals forward in the Spring."

A DWP spokesman said: "The report does not consider that we are already taking action on fraud and error through our new Fraud, Error and Recovery Bill which will help us protect claimants by stopping errors earlier alongside saving an estimated £1.5billion of taxpayer money over the next five years."