Department for Work and Pensions Accounts 2019-20

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 27 Jul 2020 Closed: 14 Sep 2020 Parliament page
For 32 years running, the National Audit Office has had to “qualify” the annual accounts of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) because of the rate and level of error and fraud in the Department’s payment of benefits. In its report on DWP’s accounts for 2019-20, the NAO says … Read more
12 Recommendations
21 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
2 Letters
1 Event
Activity timeline 5 events
25 Oct
2021
Correspondence
10 Jun
2021
Correspondence
25 Mar
2021
Report published
18 Nov
2020
Report published
24 Sep
2020
Oral evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
24 Sep 2020
View on parliament.uk
Department for Work and Pensions Accounts 2019-20
Bozena Hillyer · Department for Work and Pensions Neil Couling · Department for Work and Pensions Nick Joicey · Department for Work and Pensions Peter Schofield · Department for Work and Pensions
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Twenty-Sixth Report - Department of Work and Pensions Accounts 2… HC 681 18 Nov 2020 33 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
6 results
Clear
4 Recommendation Not Addressed
Twenty-Sixth Report - Department o…
The Department cannot demonstrate that it is doing everything that is cost- effective to tackle...
The Department cannot demonstrate that it is doing everything that is cost- effective to tackle fraud and error. The National Audit Office’s work in 2019–20 on the Department’s strategy to tackle fraud and error showed that the Department could do … Read more
Government Response
The government response does not address the recommendation to monitor and report on the impact and cost-effectiveness of fraud and error initiatives or potential discrimination from AI/machine learning.
HM Treasury
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10 Conclusion Not Addressed
Twenty-Sixth Report - Department o…
Benefit overpayments are at their highest estimated rates and have risen consistently since 2015–16.
Benefit overpayments are at their highest estimated rates and have risen consistently since 2015–16. Excluding State Pension, the estimated rate of overpayments increased again to 4.8% (£4.5 billion) of estimated benefit expenditure of £93.1 billion for 2019–20, from a restated … Read more
Government Response
The government response does not address this conclusion, instead providing a response to an unrelated recommendation (ID 21815) regarding setting annual targets for fraud and error.
HM Treasury
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12 Conclusion Not Addressed
Twenty-Sixth Report - Department o…
Universal Credit has the highest estimated overpayment rate of all measured benefits—9.4% (£1.7 billion) for...
Universal Credit has the highest estimated overpayment rate of all measured benefits—9.4% (£1.7 billion) for 2019–20—and it has an estimated underpayment rate of 1.1% (£0.2 billion). This is the highest recorded overpayment rate for any benefit other than Tax Credits … Read more
Government Response
The government response addresses a different committee recommendation regarding setting annual fraud and error targets for Universal Credit, rather than the provided conclusion about the current high overpayment rates.
HM Treasury
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16 Conclusion Not Addressed
Twenty-Sixth Report - Department o…
The Department informed us that it has taken steps to mitigate the impact of these...
The Department informed us that it has taken steps to mitigate the impact of these easements. It said it believes the key thing is to have a real-time data feed that enables it to check that the mitigations it has … Read more
Government Response
The government response addresses a different committee recommendation regarding reporting on fraud and error and easement impacts in the Annual Report, rather than the provided conclusion about current departmental monitoring of its Enhanced Checking Service.
HM Treasury
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32 Conclusion Not Addressed
Twenty-Sixth Report - Department o…
The Department reports that it is able to identify claims impacted by its temporary easements...
The Department reports that it is able to identify claims impacted by its temporary easements to controls, and that therefore it can revisit these claims to raise any resulting over (or under) payments that might have occurred; it reports that … Read more
Government Response
The government's response, which is identical to a response to a different recommendation, acknowledges the opportunity to evaluate controls and commits to reporting the impact of the pandemic and easements on Universal Credit losses, but does not specifically address the committee's concerns about acting slowly to identify and correct underpayments or revisiting claims.
HM Treasury
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33 Recommendation Not Addressed
Twenty-Sixth Report - Department o…
In response to COVID-19, many staff within the Department’s Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate were...
In response to COVID-19, many staff within the Department’s Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate were redeployed, meaning the Department temporarily paused compliance work.69 As it restarts its compliance activity the Department should be aware of the lessons from NAO’s Investigation … Read more
Government Response
The government response does not address the specific recommendation to be aware of lessons from the NAO's Carer's Allowance overpayment investigation; instead, it provides a generic response about evaluating control easements and reporting on pandemic impacts in the Annual Report.
HM Treasury
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Government Response AI assessment · 33 of 12 classified
Accepted 22
Accepted in Part 3
Acknowledged 1
Deferred 1
Not Addressed 6
Total 12 recs + 21 conclusions
Correspondence 2 letters
25 Oct 2021 Correspondence from Peter Schofield CB, Permanent Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions, re TM26 DWP Accounts 2019/2020 Recommendation 2, dated 22 September 2021
Parliament page
10 Jun 2021 Correspondence from Peter Schofield CB, Permanent Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions, re TM26 – DWP Accounts 2019/20 – recommendation 7, dated 28 May 2021
Parliament page