Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to prevent third-party universal credit fraud.

The Department has raised awareness of Universal Credit advance fraud via Jobcentreplus and a dedicated social media campaign, which reminds people of the importance of safeguarding their identity. The Department has also worked with social media sites to shut down pages that promote this type of fraud, with 125 pages closed to date.

The Department remains committed to keeping all Universal Credit services and processes, including advance payments, under review, and are making improvements to address any vulnerability in the system.

The Department now requires customers not only to prove their identity, but also attend a face to face interview at the Jobcentre before they can claim an advance. The Department remains on track with design and test activity to further reduce the risk of opportunistic advances fraud by using real time validation of key elements of the application.

In each instance we are taking care to ensure that there is no adverse effect on our ability to provide advance payments to those who need them.