Benefit overpayments due to fraud and error 'staggering'

DATA revealing more than £9 billion is estimated to have been overpaid in benefits because of fraud and error has been branded "staggering" by a Government minister.

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The latest official statistics said the total rate of benefit expenditure overpaid in the year to the end of March was £9.5 billion with fraud accounting for most of that sum. In the same period, an estimated £1.2 billion was underpaid in benefits, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures showed.

Fraud accounted for £6.5 billion of the total overpayments figure in the year to March, down from £7.3 billion a year earlier.

Claimant error was up, accounting for £1.9 billion in the year to March, from £1.6 billion the previous year, while overpayments because of official error also rose to £1 billion from £0.8 billion the previous year. Overpayment of universal credit fell slightly to £6.35 billion, from £6.41 billion in the previous year.