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<p>The Department is open and transparent about the cost of fraud and error in the
benefit system, publishing our National “Fraud and Error in the Benefit System” statistics
each year which detail the amount we estimate is lost to both fraud and error across
all benefits.</p><p> </p><p>The latest publication to Gov.uk was made on 9 May 2019
and contains estimates of fraud and error in Universal Credit. The publication can
be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fraud-and-error-in-the-benefit-system-financial-year-2018-to-2019-estimates"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fraud-and-error-in-the-benefit-system-financial-year-2018-to-2019-estimates</a></p><p>
</p><p>As UC expenditure increases, we would also expect to see an increase in the
value of fraud and error. We also expect a further increase as UC involves significantly
expanding the Department’s caseload and expenditure to include Tax Credits, which
were previously administered by Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs.</p><p> </p><p>The
design of UC is expected to lead to a reduction in overpayments across welfare. UC
allows us to adjust benefit entitlement in line with changing circumstances in real
time. Internal and external data matches are increasingly helping to inform benefit
payments and alerting staff to check for any undeclared changes in people’s circumstances.</p>
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