New powers will help us crack down on benefit fraudsters
3 min read
In the face of an ever-increasing welfare bill, it’s time we had the tools to keep pace with the increasing sophistication of fraud and minimise errors.
Modernising how we detect overpayments, deter those intent on defrauding the taxpayer, and collar criminal gangs is essential.
Last year over £10bn was lost to fraud and error, with £35bn lost in overpayments since the pandemic alone. It is clear we need to take a different approach to protect the public purse.
The Fraud, Error, and Recovery Bill includes measures that we expect to save the taxpayer £1.5 billion over the next five years.
It will bring forward reforms across the public sector to help identify, prevent and deter public sector fraud and error. The Government will have more teeth to go after fraud committed during the pandemic by giving the Covid Corruption Commissioner and the Public Sector Fraud Authority more time to investigate complex cases and recover taxpayer money.
The Bill will further help my teams take greater control of investigations into criminal gangs defrauding the taxpayer through new powers of Entry, Search and Seizure.
On top of this, trained and authorised DWP officials will be able to apply directly to the Courts for a warrant to enter the homes of suspected criminals and seize evidence.
The Bill will also help us keep pace with offenders who exploit the social security system by improving our information gathering powers to investigate suspected fraud.
It will ensure that no one found to have committed fraud against the public sector avoids punishment by extending our penalties regime to non-benefit payments.
And it will bring greater fairness to the recovery of debt, giving DWP powers to recover debt from those who are no longer on benefits or enrolled in PAYE employment and can pay the money back but refuse to do so.
We will have the power to recover money owed directly from bank accounts, and in the most serious cases, the Bill will allow DWP to get a court order to temporarily disqualify an individual’s driving license when they have repeatedly refused to repay their debt.
But it’s not all about catching fraudsters and criminals. We also want to introduce measures to help us protect claimants by stopping errors earlier and prevent those who have made mistakes from building up debt – and we’ve worked hard to ensure the Bill includes greater safeguards.
That's why the Bill will not allow DWP to enter premises or proceed with driving licence disqualification without Court approval. and it will not be possible to use the new debt powers that will allow the DWP to make direct deductions from bank accounts on benefit claimants; nor will money be taken from those who can’t afford it.
All the powers we are introducing in the Bill are proportionate and fair, and it is in everyone’s interest to improve our ability to reduce the amount of money lost to fraud and error and improve our powers of recovery.
We need to turn the tables on how fraud against the public sector is perceived and create a system where we have the power to act against those who seek to exploit it – this Bill will be central to these plans.
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