DWP pumps 'millions' into anti-fraud team ahead of bank account checks

DWP has increased its anti-fraud staff costs by nearly 200 per cent since 2021 amid a clampdown on benefit fraud.
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"MILLIONS" is being pumped into anti-fraud work as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) workforce and staff costs jump almost 200 per cent. The DWP has increased its anti-fraud staff costs by nearly 200 per cent since 2021 amid a clampdown on benefit fraud.

A Freedom of information (FOI) AP automation firm Basware has found the DWP ’s anti-fraud staff cost rose to £44.5m in the financial year 2023/24, up from £15.5m in 2021/22. Commenting on the data, Jason Kurtz, chief executive of Basware, noted: “Rooting out fraud is a major challenge facing large organisations, with many lacking the technical resources and specialist capabilities to tackle it effectively.”

“Clamping down on [fraud] requires a concerted effort from finance teams, harnessing the power of AI to identify and verify legitimate payments, whilst isolating and rejecting suspicious submissions before payment is made”, he added.

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The DWP more than doubled its anti-fraud staffing headcount, rising from the average full time staff of 398 in 2021/22 to 1,076 in 2023/24. The department revealed that it rejected 2,416 suspicious invoices valued at £186,824,180 over 2023/24, an increase in value on 2021/22, where 2215 invoices rejected at £64,389,942.

It comes as an online petition calling on the UK government to abandon plans for “mass bank spying powers” hit 200,000 signatures. A petition created by civil liberties group Big Brother Watch in January to stop the new powers has now gained nearly 200k signatures.

“It will force banks to flag people who meet secret criteria to the government,” the group said. “Everyone wants fraudulent uses of public money to be dealt with, and the government already has strong powers to check the bank statements of suspects.

“But this is a major expansion of government power that takes away our financial privacy like never before and does away with the presumption of innocence.” Silkie Carlo, the group’s chief executive, wrote on X/Twitter: “If the Prime Minister were to stand in front of the nation and vow to constantly & repeatedly search the bank accounts of every one of us – the public would be outraged. Yet that’s what’s being smuggled into UK law right *now*.”