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>
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\u2019s Counter-fraud team.<\/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\u2019s 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>
As of June 2019, potential fraudulent advance claims equate to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4014", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Sharma"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Reading West"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Alok Sharma"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-07-17", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-07-17T12:58:00.397Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-07-12", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Universal Credit: Fraud"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he is taking to tackle universal credit fraud.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/308", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Coventry South"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Jim Cunningham"} ], "uin" : "276511"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138694", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Work and Pensions"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138694/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
As of June 2019, potential fraudulent advance claims equate to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Department has been working to improve knowledge and awareness of advances fraud amongst Jobcentre and Service Centre staff. Guidance has also been issued to ensure that staff are aware how to refer cases of suspected fraud to the Department\u2019s Counter-fraud team.<\/p>
<\/p>
We are developing our service iteratively and improving any areas in the service that may currently be presenting issues, to minimise the risk of fraud while ensuring that we can continue to provide financial support to those claimants who need it.<\/p>
We cannot share advance detail of the specific security improvements we are making but this includes improving our process for verifying a claimant\u2019s circumstances.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4014", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Sharma"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Reading West"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Alok Sharma"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-07-17", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-07-17T12:46:01.26Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-07-12", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Universal Credit: Proof of Identity"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure accurate verification of universal credit claimants who request an advance.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/308", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Coventry South"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Jim Cunningham"} ], "uin" : "276512"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138406", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Work and Pensions"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138406/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Statistics on Universal Credit sanctions by age are published and can be found at:<\/p>
<\/p>
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/<\/a><\/p> <\/p> Guidance for users is available at:<\/p> <\/p> https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html<\/a><\/p>"}
, "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4014", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Sharma"}
}
, "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Reading West"}
, "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Alok Sharma"}
, "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-07-16", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-07-16T14:52:09.02Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
]}
, "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"}
, "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"}
, "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"}
, "date" : {"_value" : "2019-07-11", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Universal Credit: Disqualification"}
, "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"}
, "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"}
}
], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants over the age of 60 in receipt of universal credit have been sanctioned in the last 12 months.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4678", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sandy Martin"}
}
, "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Ipswich"}
, "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Sandy Martin"}
], "uin" : "276287"}
, {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138457", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Work and Pensions"}
], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138457/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : " The requested information for part (a) is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.<\/p> <\/strong><\/p> In response to part (b), the number of Households on UC that make use of the Split Payment option is published and can be found at:<\/p> https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/<\/a><\/p> Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:<\/p> https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html<\/a><\/p>"}
, "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4014", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Sharma"}
}
, "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Reading West"}
, "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Alok Sharma"}
, "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-07-16", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-07-16T14:40:51.723Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
]}
, "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"}
, "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"}
, "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"}
, "date" : {"_value" : "2019-07-11", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Universal Credit: Payments"}
, "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"}
, "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"}
}
], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many requests for spilt payments of universal credit have been (a) made and (b) accepted in each of the last three years.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4662", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Ruth George"}
}
, "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "High Peak"}
, "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Ruth George"}
], "uin" : "276271"}
, {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138458", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Work and Pensions"}
], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138458/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : " The requested information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.<\/p> <\/p> However, information on the number of Households on Universal Credit that have an Alternative Payment Arrangement is published and can be found at:<\/p> https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/<\/a><\/p> Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:<\/p>