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Welfare Reform Bill

I do not think that the Committee disagrees about the need to ensure that vulnerable people do not unwittingly find themselves pursued for fraud or anything else. I think we have common agreement on that. The noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, made the point that customer error would typically be dealt with elsewhere in the jobcentre and would not come into the section that looks at the possibility of fraud. Clearly there has to be sufficient evidence to prosecute. Where someone had misunderstood the rules, particularly if they had been advised by Jobcentre Plus that what they were doing was in order, it would be quite difficult to see fraud being considered in those circumstances.