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<p>The Department takes its obligation to prevent, detect and investigate fraud very
seriously and will investigate all claims where fraud may have been committed. We
have recently set up a dedicated team to investigate a specific type of emergent fraud,
and we are also committed to the use of penalties such as prosecutions and tough financial
penalties to discourage fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has also
recently been working to further improve knowledge and awareness of Universal Credit
(UC) fraud amongst Jobcentre and Service Centre staff. Guidance has also been issued
to ensure that all staff are aware how to quickly refer cases of suspected fraud to
the Department’s Counter-fraud team.</p><p> </p><p>Most welfare losses, across Government,
arise from claimants failing to report changes of circumstances. UC provides a single,
digital interface through which claimants can more easily report these changes. UC
also 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.
Once UC is fully rolled out, we expect cross-welfare losses to fraud, error and overpayments
to be reduced by around £1 billion per year</p><p> </p><p>As of June 2019, potential
fraudulent advance claims equate to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p>
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