Oral Answers to Questions

Markus Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Monday 17th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

Yes, I do agree. We see potential in every single person in the country, and many of those who have been written off and left on the scrapheap deserve a much better pathway back into work.

[Markus Campbell-Savours (Penrith and Solway) (Lab)]

12. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to tackle fraud in the welfare system by serious and organised criminal gangs.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)]

The Department works collaboratively with other Departments and with law enforcement agencies on investigations of benefit fraud carried out by organised criminal gangs. New powers in the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, which was mentioned earlier by the Minister for Employment, will strengthen our ability to tackle organised crime by modernising and enhancing our investigation powers, granting DWP officials powers of search and seizure, and ensuring that those who defraud the public sector face appropriate consequences.

[Markus Campbell-Savours]

I welcome the new powers in the fraud Bill, and note the huge increase in pension credit fraud in recent years. Can the Minister explain how capital fraud and fraud in which recipients stay out of the country for longer than the rules require, which together account for 50% of all pension credit fraud, will be targeted under the new rules?

[Andrew Western]

My hon. Friend is right to raise this issue. The eligibility verification measure in the new Bill will do just that, providing a crucial data feed to help us identify fraud that relates to pension credit as well as to universal credit and employment and support allowance. This will flag up claimants who are potentially in breach of eligibility under capital and abroad criteria, so that we can start to lower the unacceptable level of fraud and protect the public purse.

Oral Answers to Questions

Markus Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Monday 7th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

Under the previous Government, we had the highest taxes in 70 years, and jobcentres to which only one in six employers ever went to recruit. We will transform our jobcentres into a new jobs and careers service, so that people get the help they need, and so that employers can recruit the staff they desperately need.

[Markus Campbell-Savours (Penrith and Solway) (Lab)]

T10. I welcome the Government’s proposed fraud Bill. Can the Minister explain how it will claw back money from people who cheat the system, while also protecting privacy?

[Andrew Western]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s support for the proposed fraud Bill. The level of fraud in the welfare system is absolutely unacceptable; almost £10 billion was lost last year. Increased use of data will be essential to clamping down on both capital fraud and broader fraud. However, we will do that without sharing any information at all with banks and financial institutions.