To ask His Majesty's Government how many universal credit claimants were subject to deductions as a result of overpayments where the fault lay entirely with the relevant government department or agency, in the most recent month for which figures are available.
Answered on
6 March 2023
We do not hold data on actual Universal Credit (UC) overpayments as requested, as there is no requirement to categorise UC debt because it is all recoverable in law.
However, our national statistics on fraud and error in the benefit system provide information on the estimated value of UC Official Error, both as a percentage of benefit expenditure and by value.
For UC, the figures show that UC Official Error loss has fallen from 1.3% (£250m) in 2019/20, to 0.9% (£330m) in 2020/21, to 0.7% (£270m) in 2021/22.
The statistics also indicate how many cases were estimated to have an overpayment of this type - in 2019/20 the figure stood at 4.1%; in 2021/22 it was 2.6%. We do not collect data on how many of these overpayments were detected or subsequently recovered. See:
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2021 to 2022 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The DWP remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with benefit debt deductions and encourages customers experiencing hardship to contact the DWP to discuss their repayment plan.