Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the number of Employment and Support Allowance claimants who were (a) overpaid and (b) underpaid due to (i) claimant error and (ii) government error in 2024.

The last time the Department reviewed fraud and error levels in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was in 2022/23, which is reported here: Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2022 to 2023 estimates - GOV.UK. Table 11 demonstrates that 10.1% of the caseload was overpaid and 7.0% was underpaid. We did not review ESA in our fraud and error measurement exercise in 2023/24, but have assumed that those same rates will have continued.