Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2019 to Question 269123, the total amount of civil penalties her Department has issued in each of the last 12 months.

A £50 Civil Penalty may be imposed by both Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Local Authorities where an individual incurs a recoverable overpayment as a result of failing to provide accurate information as part of their benefit claim or in connection with an award of benefit, and has not taken reasonable steps to correct the error.

The table below shows the volume of Civil Penalties applied in the 12 months from July 2018 to June 2019*.

If a claimant is having difficult repaying a benefit overpayment or Civil Penalty, they can request a review of the amount that is being taken. Any adjustment in the rate of repayment will be based on the individual circumstances of the debtor.

When recovering benefit overpayments, the DWP ensures that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect claimants from any undue financial hardship.

*The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar data subsequently released by the Department. All figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred.