More than 85% of benefit fraud tip-offs are false, DWP reveals

The government has revealed that, over the last five years, only 153,751 of the 1.6m public tip-offs it has received relating to benefit fraud were genuine and required further action to be taken. The rest, it said, failed to display any signs of fraud.

The news came about as the Department for Work and Pensions responded to a freedom of information request regarding allegations of benefit fraud, in particular those made by members of the public between 2010 and 2015. In 2015 alone, the DWP’s Fraud and Error Service investigated 153,083 cases, with no further action recommended in 132,772.

The government’s policy of encouraging members of the public to report those they suspect of dishonestly claiming benefits has been seen as controversial by some politicians and members of the public alike. Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, stated, “the alarming number of incorrect reports shows the system has failed, it should be the DWP which investigates benefit fraud, not your closest neighbours. This McCarthy-style reporting of benefit fraud is another example of the government’s desire to turn people against the welfare state and to treat sick and disabled people as second-class citizens.”

The sheer volume of inaccurate accusations weighing down investigations of the DWP puts into question the government’s recent media and advertising offensive claiming that the public have a role and a duty to identify and report “benefit cheats”. The government’s own figures put the level of fraudulent benefits at 0.7% of the total budget spent on benefits (£1.2bn) in 2012/13. In the same year, however, by the government’s own estimation, £1.6m was underpaid by the DWP to benefit claimants who were entitled to received it.

While the government maintains that public tip-offs saved the taxpayer around £180m in 2015, these figures seem to suggest a disparity between the public’s perceived level and the actual level of benefit fraud.