DWP measures to prevent PIP benefit fraud of payments worth £750 a month
This year, the Labour government announced a major shake-up to the UK's main disability benefit, PIP, and shared further measures on how it would clamp down on fraud within the benefit system
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has shared some of the steps it is taking to tackle fraudulent claims of Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
The DWP confirmed - under both the Tory and Labour governments - that it was "committed" to tackling fraud within the benefits system. This year, the Labour government announced a major shake-up to the UK's main disability benefit, PIP, and shared further measures on how it would clamp down on fraud within the benefit system.
PIP is paid to people with long-term mental or physical health conditions or disabilities. PIP is not an out of work benefit, the aim of it is to help with the extra financial costs which come with medical conditions and disabilities. Unlike other benefits, you can also get PIP even if you're working, have savings or are getting most other benefits.
In a previous written question, Conservative MP Sir John Hayes asked the benefti department what steps it was taking to 'tackle people fraudulently claiming PIP'.
In response, Andrew Western, DWP minister and Labour MP for Stretford and Urmston, said: "DWP is committed to tackling fraud and error in the benefits system and to the recovery of debts, including those generated by PIP."
Join Money Saving Club's specialist topics
He also noted that the department was "working closely" with counter fraud experts to recover debts and had already introduced measures to "prevent fraud entering the system" based on the types of cases and trends it had seen. This included
Strengthening the Identity and Verification Process to prevent fraudulent cases from entering the system
Introducing more rigorous checks for customers changing personal details, including bank accounts
Delivering awareness sessions for Case Managers and Healthcare Professionals, reinforcing action to take when suspicious cases are identified - for example, fake documents
He added: 'DWP is delivering against key counter fraud activity, including investing in counter fraud professionals and building data analytical capabilities. The new Fraud, Error and Debt Bill will bring forward new measures to tackle fraud in the system."
Sign up to Mirror Money's newsletter for the latest advice and news
From universal credit to furlough, employment rights, travel updates and emergency financial aid - we've got all of the big financial stories you need to know about right now.
There are currently around 3.6 million people who claim PIP in the UK. According to figures from the DWP for the financial year ending 2024, PIP fraud stood at 0%, while Disability Living Allowance (DLA) fraud stood at 0.1%, which was rounded to £0million.
PIP overpayments stood at 0.4%, which is the equivalent of £90million lost in a year. That is compared to 1.1% - or £200million - in the financial year ending 2023. According to the data, the majority of overpayments happened because of errors where the claimant did not report a change in their needs. Only one in 100 PIP claimants was overpaid.
For DLA, the overpayment rate was 0.5% or £30million in the financial year ending 2024. Around 0.2% was due to claimant error, mainly because claimants failed to report that they were admitted to hospitals or care homes. The next DWP fraud and error report is due to be published later this month.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Farage's latest hero? Benjamin Disraeli
At 9 a.m on Monday morning, Nigel Farage will march into a central London venue to make one of his most audacious speeches yet. Since returning as leader of Reform UK last May, he has trodden carefully when it comes to policy. Farage quickly canned the party's manifesto after the election, preferring to focus on a few key areas: lifting the two-child benefit cap, hiking the annual income tax personal allowance to £20,000, cutting council waste, abolishing Net Zero and renationalising steel. But his next move is more original in its thinking. Farage will announce a new policy for 'non-doms': British residents whose permanent home for tax purposes is outside the UK. Rachel Reeves' first Budget abolished this status in April, claiming it would raise £2.7bn a year by 2029. Yet amid a wave of reports about a 'flight of the rich', Farage senses an opportunity to try to retain such wealth in the UK while making a political pitch to the poorest in society too. He will float a new one-off £250,000 'landing fee' for the super-rich, renewed every ten years. Non-doms would be exempt from inheritance tax, instead only paying income tax on a remittance basis. The cash generated by this card-based scheme will be redistributed to the poorest 10 per cent of full time UK workers. Between 6,000 to 10,000 are expected to be issued annually, according to internal estimates. In a low-uptake scenario with 6,000 cards issued, the party expects to generate a £1.5bn fund, resulting in a tax-free annual divided of £600 per worker. Farage hopes to do three things with this speech. The first is a straightforward political attack on Rachel Reeves. The Clacton MP intends to savage her record in office and dub her 'the worst Chancellor in living memory.' This fits in with Reform's plans to frame the next election as a straight fight between them and Labour. The second is to show that the party is serious when it comes to policy. Both Farage and Zia Yusuf have been heavily involved in its conception; a ten-page document of graphs and workings will be handed out to journalists at Monday's press conference. His speech aims to appeal to both rich and poor and show that the fate of these 'two nations' are bound together by fate. Farage, similarly, professes a confidence that 'the working classes of England are proud of belonging to a great country'. His speech will be delivered close to the statue of Disraeli in Parliament where the masses once gathered to lay primroses at his feet; the Reform UK leader hopes to elicit a similar metaphorical reaction on Monday too. The non-doms announcement will be relentlessly scrutinised by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and others, who warned Reform's personal allowance changes would cost the Treasury between £50 to £80bn a year. Yet Farage is willing to face criticism if it enables his party to claim territory that others regard as unfavourable. His strategy has echoes of Boris Johnson's Brexit coalition in 2019: pro-banker, yes, but, crucially, pro-worker too. Farage and Yusuf have spent many hours discussing how best to capitalise on the theme of a 'battle of resources' in a country which, for many of their voters, seems to reward the old, the comfortable and the immigrant at the expense of the young, the struggling and the native. Reform might have ditched its 'contract with Britain', but expect talk of the social contract to be a staple of its future pitch.
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Farage: ‘I will charge non-doms £250k and give it to the poor'
Nigel Farage will vow to reinstate non-dom status for wealthy entrepreneurs if they pay a £250,000 fee which will be handed to Britain's poorest workers. On Monday, the Reform UK leader will use a press conference to unveil plans to impose a Robin Hood-style levy on new or returning 'high net worth' individuals. The revenue generated would then be redistributed to pay cash bonuses of £600 a year to low-paid workers. Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Farage said the policy would encourage the return of wealthy and talented entrepreneurs to the UK while also providing benefits to British workers. The policy will be seen as a further attempt to win over Labour voters after Reform's commitment last month to restore the winter fuel payment to all pensioners and scrap the two-child benefit cap. It also creates a clear dividing line with the Tories and Labour on wealth generation after both parties ordered crackdowns on non-doms. 'Success must be celebrated' The announcement comes a day after a poll showed that Reform was on course to win an outright majority at the next general election. Mr Farage said: 'Our policy is simple – Britain must be a place where success is celebrated, not punished with excessive taxes, crippling energy costs, or punitive inheritance levies. 'We will actively encourage the return of wealth and talent to the United Kingdom, on the clear condition that those who come here deliver immediate, visible benefits to our workers.' Rachel Reeves scrapped non-dom status in April, ending wealthy individuals' right to avoid full UK tax on their overseas earnings. The Chancellor also made worldwide assets of all UK residents subject to inheritance tax at 40 per cent. The moves have been blamed for driving some of Britain's richest people abroad. Those affected by the scrapping of the status include people such as the South African national Richard Gnodde, Goldman Sachs's best-paid banker outside the US, Nassef Sawiris, the Aston Villa FC co-owner, and the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. Mr Farage wrote: 'Over the last 10 years, UK policy toward non-domiciled taxpayers has lurched from piecemeal tightening under successive Conservative chancellors to outright abolition under the current Labour Government. 'The result? A record-breaking and alarming exodus of high-spending, high-tax-paying residents, leaving an estimated £7 billion yearly hole in public finances and inflicting huge collateral damage on London's position as Europe's financial centre.' Mr Farage claimed Reform's approach would be 'different, transparent, and designed to directly benefit the hard-working backbone of this nation'. 'Every high net worth newcomer [or returning leaver] will pay a £250,000 one-off entry contribution in return for a stable, indefinite remittance-style regime on offshore income and a 20-year inheritance-tax shield,' he added. The new non-doms would have to renew their status with a £250,000 payment every subsequent decade, which would renew their 20-year inheritance tax exemption. They would have to pay UK taxes on their UK earnings including income tax, NI, VAT and stamp duty. Anyone who had remained in the UK and wanted to renew their non-dom status would also be eligible under the plans, to be set out in a 12-page document on Monday. 'Crucially, 100 per cent of this contribution is hypothecated to Britain's lowest-paid full-time workers, delivered automatically by HMRC as a tax-free cash dividend,' said Mr Farage. 'This means roughly 2.5 million hard-working Britons – the grafters who keep this country running – will receive an annual cash bonus, sent directly to their bank accounts at the end of the financial year. 'Thanks to this policy, in a low-uptake scenario with 6,000 cards issued annually, we'll generate a £1.5 billion fund, resulting in a tax-free annual dividend of £600 per worker. In a high-uptake scenario with 10,000 cards, this could deliver a £2.5-billion fund, providing £1,000 per worker. 'This isn't just a number. It's money in the pockets of those who need it most, from cleaners to nurses to small business owners.' By Nigel Farage It should come as no surprise that, over the past few decades, many of the UK's most successful and influential business minds have left the country in droves – a clear and troubling sign of national decline. Over the past 10 years, UK policy toward non-domiciled taxpayers ('non-doms') has lurched from piecemeal tightening under successive Conservative chancellors to outright abolition under the current Labour Government. The result? A record-breaking and alarming exodus of high-spending, high-tax-paying residents, leaving an estimated £7 billion yearly hole in public finances and inflicting huge collateral damage on London's position as Europe's financial centre. The social contract between the rich and the poor is at an all-time low. Public trust in the tax system has been eroded by perceptions that elites play by a different set of rules. In the past, your average Briton saw little to no benefit from the wealthy in their midst. If anything, it created greater division and hostility. Reform UK is determined to change this. We are the party of working people – the party of those with alarm clocks who get up in the morning and work hard, whether they're at the higher end of the financial scale or the lower end. Our approach is different, transparent, and designed to directly benefit the hard-working backbone of this nation. Unlike the opaque financial mechanisms of the past, where wealth seemed to vanish into hidden pots of money that ordinary people could not see, Reform UK is committed to doing things differently. We will rebuild the social contract by ensuring that every wealthy individual who wishes to move here makes a tangible contribution to Britain's lowest earners. Our policy is simple: Britain must be a place where success is celebrated, not punished with excessive taxes, crippling energy costs, or punitive inheritance levies. We will actively encourage the return of wealth and talent to the United Kingdom – on the clear condition that those who come here deliver immediate, visible benefits to our workers. Here's how it works: every high-net-worth newcomer (or returning leaver) will pay a £250,000 one-off entry contribution in return for a stable, indefinite remittance-style regime on offshore income and a 20-year inheritance-tax shield. Crucially, 100 per cent of this contribution is hypothecated to Britain's lowest-paid full-time workers, delivered automatically by HMRC as a tax-free cash dividend. This means roughly 2.5 million hard-working Britons – the grafters who keep this country running – will receive an annual cash bonus, sent directly to their bank accounts at the end of the financial year. Thanks to this policy, in a low-uptake scenario with 6,000 cards issued annually, we'll generate a £1.5 billion fund, resulting in a tax-free annual dividend of £600 per worker. In a high-uptake scenario with 10,000 cards, this could deliver a £2.5 billion fund, providing £1,000 per worker. This isn't just a number. It's money in the pockets of those who need it most, from cleaners to nurses to small-business owners. Our policy is not a 'golden visa' or a backdoor to citizenship. It is a one-time flat tax paid by newcomers in exchange for the certainty of a favourable tax status. Individuals will still be liable for all standard UK taxes on UK-sourced income, property, and spending. But they won't be taxed on offshore income and gains for the duration of their agreed status. Pay your quarter million pounds upfront, and enjoy UK residency without worldwide taxation hassles. After all, this is still the best country in the world, and many of the world's wealthy want to move here but are deterred by the economic downsides. Unlike the old, indefinite non-dom arrangement under the Tories, which lacked transparency and failed to benefit ordinary people, our solution is immediate, visible, and mutually beneficial for both newcomers and the hard-working British worker struggling to make ends meet. Unlike Labour's punitive approach, which drives wealth away, we incentivise the rich to return to Britain. Over the past decade, the number of non-dom taxpayers has plummeted from over 120,000 to fewer than 80,000. The failed approaches of both Labour and the Conservatives have cost this country billions annually. Reform UK's plan will reverse this trend, capturing revenue from global wealth, channelling funds to support the working class, and restoring London as a global powerhouse for business, finance, and investment. The driving ambition of Reform UK is to put the lives of everyday British citizens first – and this policy does exactly that. We are the party of working people, and we are building a Britain where wealth and opportunity are shared, not hoarded. By ensuring that every pound contributed by the wealthy goes directly to those who get up early and work hard, we are creating a fairer, stronger, and more prosperous nation for all.
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Holyrood must yet again mitigate against harm caused by Westminster
This announcement, just like the Scottish Child Payment, is progressive, and tackling child poverty at source. Time and time again the Scottish Government are having to mitigate against the harmful policies from Westminster, just like they did with Westminster's abolition of the universal Winter Fuel Payment. READ MORE: Scottish Government names date for ditching two-child cap Those mitigating measures along with the public outcry resulted in a U-turn by the Labour government at Westminster and rightly so. On the pressing and urgent issue of child poverty, can we expect a U-turn from Westminster with the immediate withdrawal of the damaging two-child cap on benefits? Catriona C Clark Falkirk
