The Government’s own spending watchdog has hit out at overpayments made to benefit claimants, particularly those on housing benefit.
The Public Accounts Committee has criticised the Department of Work and Pensions for failing to tackle fraud and for making mistakes.
DWP is found to have overpaid benefits to the tune of £1.4bn between 2013 and 2014, with the highest number of overpayments (42%) in housing benefit.
The report recommends that DWP reviews how it allocates money and resources to tackling housing benefit fraud and error, and told it to report back within six months.
Margaret Hodge MP, chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: “Billions of pounds have been lost to the taxpayer as a result of the Department for Work and Pensions’ failure to tackle housing benefit fraud and error effectively.
“Around £12.6bn has been spent on housing benefit overpayments since 2000/01 – money that could have been used to improve the system.
“The size of overpayments is going up, not down.”
In the last financial year, of the £1.4bn of housing benefit overpayments, £900m was claimant error, £340m was claimant fraud and £150m was official error.
A DWP spokesperson said: “At the end of last year we brought in a new detection system that will cross-check all housing benefit claims against up-to-the-minute information on earnings and pension income.
“And we expect the ongoing introduction of Universal Credit to cut fraud and error by a further £1.5bn.”
Comments (6)
Side bar – Many times these figures mentioned is lost to the Exchequer in tax avoidance by MPs, their cronies and the corporations they serve.
In our area and probably many others is the endemic abuse of the "single" mother claimant. 16hrs a week employment…cash in hand for other hours. Father who does not exist but lives in property and works. Tenancies in single name only to qualify for Housing Benefit.
Result……….Lifestyles ordinary working couples with families cannot afford.
Blatant fraud but Local Authority and MP not interested when reported to them
Sounds like most towns, very sad.
Without getting too political about this its what this country has become rewarding stupidity and laziness. The basic premise of benefits and right to buy are great and should be applauded But not enough policing or policy and loopholes is done and as a country we accept this. Even people that work expect something for nothing, the work ethic and mentality of "I need to work hard to achieve this" be it tangible or emotional has gone. Replaced with "I deserve this" And there is no point changing a government to sort out this mess as it has gone far too far. The thought that a person can purchase a property in Westminster at a reduced rate and then sell it and move elsewhere and could have zero mortgage and still cash in the bank whist others wait on a list to be homed is fundamentally flawed in my opinion.
What is a disgrace is that the blame for the failure of two government departments is often laid at the door of tenants. What is easily disguised as fraud by tenants is actually a failure to recognise that an even, 4 weekly, benefits system is virtually un-manageable by tenants, agents and landlords. It is easy to see how DWP will pat themselves on the back for detecting fraud but the reality is the 4.3333 week (monthly) payment system of Universal credit will , at a stroke, be resolving one of the most archaic and complicated accounting system it is possible to create. I genuinely believe that with seemingly no understanding of how a rental system should work both CLG and DWP are woefully lacking in qualification to even pass comment on the subject let alone determine policy. This story alone shows how out of touch they are.
It's disgraceful.