DWP targeting one benefit in particular with new bank account checks

The Department for Work and Pensions is ramping up its benefits crackdown with a team of 2,500 ‘external agents’ to target fraud. The DWP boss Mel Stride and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt have spoken to the Times newspaper confirming they were targeting Universal Credit claimants.

2,500 external agents will be recruited by the DWP to tackle fraud and error in the Universal Credit system. The DWP also wants to introduce a a new civil penalty to “punish fraudsters” when it detects fraudulent activity and claims.

But the Canary’s Steve Topple warned : "Much of the £8.3bn the DWP promotes as fraud (and that the media dutifully laps up) is just based on assumptions and guesswork. In 2020/21, 152,000 claims the DWP valued at £1.9bn were not even real claimants."

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Trade Union Congress’s (TUC) general secretary Paul Nowak has also hit out at the rhetoric, saying: "Unemployment shot up by over 160,000 over the last quarter and record numbers of people are becoming economically inactive because they are too sick to work.

"Instead of punching down, the Tories should be tackling our sky-high waiting lists and improving access to treatment. And they should be laser-focused on improving the quality of work in this country. People need jobs they can build a life on. But under the Conservatives we have seen an explosion of low-paid and insecure work that has led to eye-watering levels of in-work poverty.

"Before handing out lectures, Jeremy Hunt and Mel Stride should try surviving on a zero-hours contract." But speaking in the Times, the Chancellor and DWP boss said Britain is far better off than many would have you believe and theyb argued the unemployed have “ample opportunity” to find a job.

The pair argued that the economy is doing “far better than many would have you believe” as they tell people out of work that there is no good reason to languish on benefits.