PIP cuts won't fix ‘alarming' benefit fraud, experts warn Labour

[Sly Saint]

Labour's plan to crack down on disability benefits will do little to curb the UK's "alarming" levels of welfare fraud, experts have warned.

Sir Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to rethink controversial proposals to restrict access to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) - worth up to £800 a month - amid claims the cuts are unfair, misdirected, and risk hurting vulnerable people.
Ministers are also pushing ahead with a sweeping new fraud bill that would allow the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to rifle through claimants' bank accounts to check for undeclared savings or work.

But campaigners and academics say the real problem lies elsewhere - with government figures revealing the lion's share of fraud comes from Universal Credit, not PIP.

Figures for 2024-25 show £6.5 billion was lost to benefit fraud, but just £100 million of that involved PIP. By contrast, fraud linked to Universal Credit accounted for a staggering £5.2 billion.

MSN

 

[Snow Leopard]

Ugh, real fraud numbers are no where near that high.

 

[Trish]

PIP is not means tested and is not related to whether someone is working, it's an allowance to help cover the extra costs of being sick or disabled.

The stuff about trawling through bank accounts to look for fraud is irrelevant to PIP, it's only related to income related benefits like UC,

 

[Kitty]

Ugh, real fraud numbers are no where near that high.

Usually DWP roll up 'fraud and error' into a single category, so you might well be right.

Needless to say, a substantial proportion of the error is on the part of DWP, not claimants.

 

[MrMagoo]

Usually DWP roll up 'fraud and error' into a single category, so you might well be right.

Needless to say, a substantial proportion of the error is on the part of DWP, not claimants.

I wonder what the cost of the “errors” in awarding pip points is - the cost to us, the people not being awarded 4 points because we can answer the doorbell, so therefore can cook a meal.