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<p>The DWP makes around 12 million Winter Fuel payments each year.</p><p>The DWP is
working hard to prevent overpayments from occurring in the first place. However, these
do sometimes occur due to a claimant failing to inform DWP of a change of household
composition, or that they have moved abroad. Winter Fuel staff annually undertake
an extensive Data Matching exercise to identify if any overpayments have occurred,
and reduce the possibility of incorrect payments.</p><p>The table below shows the
volume of Winter Fuel payments that were overpaid in the last 3 financial years rounded
to the nearest 100. This represents less than 0.05% of the total Winter Fuel payments
made.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Volume Of Winter Fuel
Payments Overpaid</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016-17</p></td><td><p>3,600</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017-18</p></td><td><p>5,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018-19</p></td><td><p>5,200</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><em>*The
data in this response has been sourced from internal management information. It should
therefore not be compared to any other similar data subsequently released by the Department.</em></p><p
/><p>The DWP has an obligation to ensure that public money is administered responsibly.
Therefore, where permitted under Social Security legislation, the DWP seeks to recover
any overpaid benefit. Where possible, the DWP will recover through on-going deductions
from a claimant’s benefit.</p><p>The DWP ensures that appropriate safeguards are in
place to protect claimants who have deductions from their benefit to repay overpayments.
There are maximum rates of deduction that are set out in legislation, and if a claimant
is struggling they can contact the DWP’s Debt Management Team to discuss lowering
their repayment rate.</p><p> </p>
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