Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many third parties who have allegedly scammed people into making a universal credit claim have been identified and investigated; and how many of those third parties have been referred for prosecution.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Examination of the cases currently being progressed by the Department indicates there are 107 third-party individuals that are subject to investigation. This number is subject to change as cases progress.
At the time of submission, one 3rd party case has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service and has been successfully prosecuted. There are a number of other cases at an advanced stage of investigation.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many administrative penalties her Department has levied on individuals who have reported they have been a victim of universal credit fraud.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information you have requested could only be provided by manually examining a substantial number of individual cases. The Department estimates that this would incur disproportionate costs.
For the sake of clarity the policy is that an Administrative Penalty is only ever considered as an alternative to a referral for a prosecution in cases where benefit fraud has been committed, and not for innocent victims who report fraud.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in how many interviews under caution have individuals who have reported they have been a victim of universal credit fraud had a legal representative to accompany them.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I have interpreted your question to relate to Universal Credit advances fraud.
The information requested could only be provided by manually examining the cases. We estimate that this would incur disproportionate costs. However, all claimants are entitled to bring a legal representative and are advised of this in their invitation to interview.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many administrative penalties her Department has levied on victims of universal credit fraud who attended interviews under caution and who were accompanied by legal representatives.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Administrative Penalties would not be used in any case where evidence showed that a claimant was an innocent victim of Universal Credit advances fraud.
Administrative Penalties are financial penalties which can be used as an alternative to prosecution in cases where benefit fraud has been committed.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to prevent third-party universal credit fraud.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has raised awareness of Universal Credit advance fraud via Jobcentreplus and a dedicated social media campaign, which reminds people of the importance of safeguarding their identity. The Department has also worked with social media sites to shut down pages that promote this type of fraud, with 125 pages closed to date.
The Department remains committed to keeping all Universal Credit services and processes, including advance payments, under review, and are making improvements to address any vulnerability in the system.
The Department now requires customers not only to prove their identity, but also attend a face to face interview at the Jobcentre before they can claim an advance. The Department remains on track with design and test activity to further reduce the risk of opportunistic advances fraud by using real time validation of key elements of the application.
In each instance we are taking care to ensure that there is no adverse effect on our ability to provide advance payments to those who need them.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at what point during the universal credit claim process her Department checks claims for potentially fraudulent details.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Effective identity verification and authentication, using commonly applied standards across the Department, protects claimants' personal data and makes a direct contribution to the prevention of fraud.
There are various ways in which a claimant can verify their identity to support a new claim to Universal Credit: online using the electronic Verify system; in person using primary and secondary ID verification or; by using biographical questions, for those who do not have identity documents.
Staff are encouraged to report any instances of potentially fraudulent activity. All claims where fraud may have been committed are investigated. We will use penalties such as prosecutions and tough financial penalties, where appropriate, to discourage fraudulent behaviour. The Department considers all cases on their own merits and decisions are made on the strength of the evidence provided.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her oral contribution to the Work and Pensions Committee of 24 July 2019, how many of the 1,400 cases to have undergone interview under caution due to third-party universal credit fraud have been referred for prosecution.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is not able to comment on investigations that may be ongoing.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to prevent cases of third-party universal credit fraud taking place during managed migration.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has raised awareness of this issue via a dedicated social media campaign, which reminds people of the importance of safeguarding their identity. The Department has also worked with social media sites to shut down pages that promote this type of fraud, with 121 pages closed to date.
We remain committed to keeping all Universal Credit services and processes, including advance payments, under review, and are making improvements to address any vulnerability in the system. Improving verification and increasing the number of face to face interviews are potential options, but any changes will need to be carefully impacted to ensure there is no adverse effect on our ability to pay people the money they need to live on ahead of their Universal Credit claim.
The Universal Credit pilot is helping move the first cohort of people to Universal Credit. Minimising potential risks is a key part of our approach. Testing the system and our processes in this way ensures we will be able to deliver a secure service to those claimants who will move to Universal Credit from their legacy benefit claim as planned, by the end of 2023.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work of 8 July 2019, Official Report, Column 321, if she will provide details of the successful third-party universal credit fraud prosecution.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is committed to the prevention, detection and investigation of benefit fraud. We take this issue very seriously and will continue to use appropriate penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.
Turning to the specific case you reference, the defendant was convicted at a Magistrates court on 14 February 2019 for fraudulently obtaining £4,152.86 in Universal Credit Advances.
This prosecution identified that the suspect had hijacked the identities of close family members in order to make fraudulent applications to Universal Credit, via the online application process, enabling fraudulent payments of Universal Credit and Universal Credit Advances.
It was established that the defendant had also impersonated a friend and changed the payment destination of his friend’s Universal Credit payments.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the legal basis is for her department to ask claimants who are victims of third-party universal credit fraud to attend an interview under caution at a Jobcentre rather than provide a witness statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.