The latest Public Accounts Committee report on Housing Benefit (HB) fraud and error takes the DWP to task for failing to tackle HB problems quickly or convincingly
The report finds that:
“The major cause of Housing Benefit overpayments in 2013-14 was claimant error (£900 million), which represented two thirds of total overpayments (claimant fraud—£340 million; official error—£150 million). The main source of claimant error was unreported fluctuations in claimants' earnings. The Department believes that the increase in the number of in-work claimants, for which rates of overpayment are five times higher than claims from out-of-work claimants, is the main reason for the increase in Housing Benefit overpayments.”
The report notes:
- The size of overpayments is going up not down.
- The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has still not effectively targeted the major sources of fraud and error – 16 years after this Committee first sounded the alarm.
- The DWP is not doing anything to target underpayments, despite the hardship caused.
- The incentives provided by the DWP for local authorities to tackle fraud and claimant error are not good enough.
- The Committee recommends that the DWP review how it allocates money and resources to tackling Housing Benefit fraud and error and report back within 6 months on what measures it has introduced specifically to target underpayments and encourage legitimate take-up.
- The Department should also produce a proposal for how to strengthen incentives so that local authorities tackle Housing Benefit fraud and error more effectively.
View Public Accounts Committee - Twenty-Seventh Report: Housing Benefit fraud and error.