Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases of benefit fraud have been found by her Department in each year since 2015; and how many of those cases have resulted in a criminal conviction.

The changing nature of fraud investigation work in the 5-year period prior to the Covid pandemic is reflected in the above figures, including an increase in the actual prosecution threshold, which allowed us to generate better returns for the taxpayer by focusing on detecting fraud quicker and enforcing tough Administrative penalties.

This was evidenced in 2019, when we took the decision to temporarily divert fraud resources to tackle UC Advances fraud, an emerging threat at that time. This necessary change to our operational approach led to a corresponding increase in financial penalties, with 10,000 Admin. penalties issued in 2019/20 alone.

In 2020, DWP’s ability to investigate cases, and the courts’ ability to process cases, were significantly impacted by the Covid pandemic, with large numbers of DWP staff redeployed to support the unprecedented demand for financial support, and social distancing measures constraining our ability to carry out face to face Interviews Under Caution.

However, DWP maintained an operational fraud presence throughout and is now looking to resume face to face interviews in DWP premises, whilst making sure that all the necessary safety precautions are in place. We can, as a result, expect to see the level of prosecution cases increasing over the coming months.

More generally, it should be noted that DWP will always look to use penalties proportionally. Prosecuting someone for a relatively minor offence could be inappropriate if it adversely affects their life chances by, for example, reducing their employability. This would run against DWP’s overall objective of encouraging people into work and gaining financial independence. DWP focuses instead on prosecuting the most serious, higher value overpayments, but reserves the right to refer any case for prosecution, dependent on the case.

Note that all figures have been rounded to the nearest 100 and are correct up to 9 March 2022. Data has been sourced from DWP’s main internal IT fraud management information system. The figures do not reflect cases that are currently suspended, cases that were not investigated by our central fraud investigation team, or data held on other DWP systems.

Internal data is only intended to help the Department manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.