The DWP is being granted new powers from the new Labour Party government which will allow it to take money from payslips and accounts
The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed that one benefit will be exempt from bank account checks. The DWP is set to receive new powers from the Labour Party government, allowing it to deduct money directly from payslips and accounts.
However, state pensioners have been assured by DWP minister Liz Kendall that they are safe. Benefit fraud investigators will soon have the ability to recover overclaimed debts directly from bank accounts, thanks to these new powers.
Officials have previously attributed the rise in scams since Covid to an ‘increasing propensity’ for deceit within British society. Ms Kendall has pledged to modernise her department’s two-decade-old powers, describing their current investigative capabilities as ‘absurd’.
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The DWP will soon have the authority to directly retrieve money from benefit fraudsters, as the government promises to clamp down on welfare scams. It was revealed that DWP officials anticipate a five per cent annual increase in fraud.
During 2023-24, £9.7 billion of taxpayers’ money was overpaid in benefits due to fraud and error, accounting for 3.7 per cent of total benefit expenditure. This is a rise from £8.3 billion and 3.6 per cent in 2022-23, with the rate of benefit overpayments remaining significantly higher than pre-Covid levels, reports Birmingham Live.
In a candid letter to the Telegraph, Ms Kendall remarked: “We’re in an absurd situation where DWP’s powers have not been updated for 20 years, meaning fraudsters have new ways of taking public money, and we need to keep pace with them.”
She further elaborated to the national newspaper, asserting this weekend: “My team are still, in 2024, sending letters to gather evidence for those suspected of welfare fraud, slowing them down to snail’s pace when they could be shutting down serious fraud cases.”
