Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of cases reviewed by her Department's Risk Review Team have been issued with a negative habitual residence test decision in each of the last two years.

The Department’s Risk Review Team (RRT) was established in May 2020, as part of the Department’s response to direct fraud threats that emerged in the early days of the pandemic.

Since the team was established, processes have evolved; as a result detailed records on Habitual Residence Test (HRT) outcomes in cases reviewed by RRT are only available from 5^th July 2021.

I can confirm that, since that date, 608 of the 9676 claims reviewed by RRT in that period failed the HRT; this represents just over 6%.