Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many full time equivalent employees in his Department are working on tackling (a) benefit fraud and (b) error.

As civil servants, it is our duty to ensure that public funds are spent appropriately and deliver public services that represent value for the taxpayer. Fraud against the welfare system negatively impacts public services and taxpayers as it draws funds away from those who need them most. Within DWP, tackling fraud and error is everybody’s business, from Work Coaches in our Jobcentres through to Service Centre colleagues and as such, separating out the resource and costs spent on preventing and detecting fraud amongst these varying job roles is not feasible.