Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many overpayments of Universal Credit have been attributed to Official Error in each of the last three years; and what the total value of those overpayments.

We do not hold data on actual Universal Credit (UC) overpayments as requested, as there is no requirement to categorise UC debt because it is all recoverable in law.

However, our national statistics on Fraud and Error in the benefit system provide information on the estimated value of UC Official Error, both as a percentage of benefit expenditure and by value.

For UC the figures show that UC Official Error loss has fallen from 1.3% (£250m) in 2019/20, to 0.9% (£330m) in 2020/21, to 0.7% (£270m) in 2021/22.

The statistics do not cover the number of overpayments made across the year but indicate how many cases were estimated to have an overpayment of this type, at a point in time. In 2019/20 the figure stood at 4.1%; in 2021/22 it was 2.6%.

Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2021 to 2022 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

DWP remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with benefit debt deductions and encourages customers experiencing hardship to contact DWP to discuss their repayment plan.