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Written question asked by Ruth George (Labour) on Wednesday, 25 September 2019, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 September 2019 (named day). A holding answer was provided on Monday, 30 September 2019. A substantive answer was provided by Guy Opperman (Conservative) on Tuesday, 1 October 2019 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.


Universal Credit: Fraud

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many administrative penalties her Department has levied on individuals who have reported they have been a victim of universal credit fraud.

Answer

The information you have requested could only be provided by manually examining a substantial number of individual cases. The Department estimates that this would incur disproportionate costs.

For the sake of clarity the policy is that an Administrative Penalty is only ever considered as an alternative to a referral for a prosecution in cases where benefit fraud has been committed, and not for innocent victims who report fraud.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
291086
Session
2017-19
Subjects
Fraud Fixed penalties Universal credit
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk