Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to prioritise the needs of vulnerable claimants and protected groups in plans to use data analytics and machine learning to flag potential benefit fraud.

As a public body, the Department for Work and Pensions has processes in place to ensure it meets the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, including the Public Sector Equality Duty, which covers the need to pay due regard to equality in the development and provision of its services; our approach to using data analytics and machine learning to detect/prevent fraud is no exception.

The department has been cautious in this area and is committed to ensuring individuals’ rights are protected when personal data is processed for its functions and has outlined in its Personal Information Charter how we use data for fraud and error purposes. The department also has measures in place to identify and support vulnerable claimants, including referral to our specialist customer support team who provide a range of services. The department is conscious to take into account the impact of decisions on protected groups under the Equality Act.

The department is always careful to process data lawfully, proportionately, and ethically, with meaningful human input and safeguards in place for the protection of individuals.

We do not use machine learning to replace human judgement to determine or deny a payment to a claimant; a human agent always makes final decisions in these circumstances.