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 support victims of universal credit scams.

The Department takes this issue very seriously and we continue to look across government and beyond to tackle benefit fraud.

In June, the Department launched a new process for claimants who allege that without their participation or knowledge, their identity has been used to make a fraudulent claim for Universal Credit. Where this is found to be the case, the Department will consider reinstatement of relevant legacy benefits and/or tax credits.

The Department considers each case on its own merits and decisions are made on the strength of the evidence provided.

If a claimant has been the victim of a scam, and has not benefited from it in any way, they will not be held liable for any debt. In these cases, we will seek to recover any losses from the perpetrator of any fraud.