DWP can stop Universal Credit payments for failure to comply with claim review
The Department for Work and Pensions has warned people their payments will be stopped if they fail to engage with its latest checks. Thousands of Universal Credit claims are being reviewed to see if people are legitimately entitled to the benefit and are receiving the correct amount.
It's part of a long-running initiative to look at huge numbers of Universal Credit cases, especially those that were approved during the Covid lockdowns when the usual checks weren't possible. Around seven million people are now on Universal Credit, with numbers rising sharply due to the transfer of those on older benefits that will eventually be phased out.
Those who are selected for a claim review usually have to upload several months of bank statements for every account they hold, along with other documentation to prove their rent, earnings, childcare costs, and any health conditions that limit their ability to work. There is a capital limit of £16,000 in savings for claiming Universal Credit and most other means-tested benefits.
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An interview is held after the evidence has been provided, to run through details of a person's claim and ask questions such as explaining entries on bank statements. Department officials are in the process of checking around two million claims, which it first announced last year.
The DWP says the reviews help identify where people have been underpaid or overpaid and action is then taken to remedy any issues that arise. Overpayments are deducted from future amounts of Universal Credit.
A DWP minister confirmed in May 2023: "DWP takes benefit correctness extremely seriously and where departmental errors are identified we act swiftly to correct and pay any arrears due. The Government is fully committed to ensuring that historical errors made by successive governments are addressed as quickly as possible and where these are identified, ensure that appropriate action is taken to rectify the claim.
"The department's Quality Framework means we constantly check the accuracy of agents' work, which helps identify any additional training requirements. It also means we can update training material and instructions as required. Alongside the department’s quality checking regime, our Targeted Case Review initiative will review two million UC (Universal Credit) cases over the next five years, checking entitlement and helping ensure people are receiving the right amount of benefit."
In July 2022, it was revealed that the DWP was revisiting all the Universal Credit claims approved during the pandemic, when checking procedures had to be relaxed because jobcentres were closed and face-to-face appointments weren't possible. After re-examining 1.1 million Universal Credit awards, it found 125,000 had an "element of incorrectness" and some people were asked to pay back their benefits.