The DWP considers that the rate of fraud in relation to personal independence payment (PIP) is so small that it is assessed at 0% in the 2024 “Fraud and error in the benefits system annual report”.  In total, the combined rate for both fraud and error in universal credit (UC) is 32 times higher than for PIP.

The report looks at fraud and other overpayments in the benefits system.

It found that the rate of fraud for different benefits in the year ending April 2024 was:

  • Universal credit (UC) 10.9%
  • Pension credit  (PC) 3.9%
  • Housing benefit (HB) 3.9%
  • Personal independence payment  (PIP) 0%

The report also looks at overpayments not caused by fraud. 

For PIP, the majority of overpayments are put down to claimant error, mainly when claimants fail to report an improvement in their functional needs.  However, even this has decreased in the last year from 0.9% in 2023 to a tiny 0.3% in 2024.  The rate of overpayments of PIP due to official error on the part of the DWP was 0.1%.

In total, overpayments for all reasons, including fraud was just 0.4% for PIP.

For UC it was 12.9%.  This is a massive 32 times higher than for PIP.

For PC it was 9.7%

For HB it was 6.3%.

So, by a very considerable margin, PIP is the benefit least prone to fraud and to error.

You can download a copy of the “Fraud and error in the benefits system annual report”.

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  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Wat Tyler · 25 days ago
    Wasn’t fraud 0.7% under the old system?😳

    If the point of UC was to eliminate fraud then that worked didn’t it????

    12% for UC is a sign of systemic failure.

    As for the rollout of forced migration I knew they do this before an election & interestingly just before an enquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission(EHRC)into the treatment of the disabled by the DWP.


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      Jack Cade · 25 days ago
      @Wat Tyler the 12% figure includes error because the DWP merged the two figures in their official reporting because the fraud rate didn't line up with government rhetoric.
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    Andrew Currie · 25 days ago
    Having suffered over twenty years of abuse from the DWP, I am not at all surprised at what is coming out in the Post Office Horizon scandal - another example of lots 
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    Clare · 25 days ago
    People seem to think it is so easy to claim PIP When the reality is so different This comes from someone who knows after being awarded zero points for my last claim Then only on appeal awarded full PIP Claiming  PIP is not an easy road to take Even when awarded PIP that is not the end As then you are branded a scrounger and a malingerer Then you must be a fraud Well this proves we are none of those things We do not deserve to be tarred with that brush Instead we should be treated with care and compassion Maybe the focus should be on the money spent on unnecessary reconsiderations and appeals So getting it right first time Rather than second or third time
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    shadowPony · 25 days ago
    wasn't uC meant to be fraud proof? yeah that really worked out well didn't it? it was rubbish when first stated by this govt, and is prooven now to be percentages of rubbish.
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    shadowpony · 26 days ago
    people have been writing to the papers for years about the lack of disability beneifits fraud, but it doesn't work, as the papers have their own agenda. 3 quarters of the UK media is tory supporting.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Jen · 25 days ago
      @shadowpony They’re two sides of the same coin!
      Tony Blair’s government toyed with means testing disability benefits, and when Labour get in they won’t wind back on this. They’ve set out their spending, including keeping the triple lock, it all needs to be paid for, and we’re an easy target for savings! 
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    Sandra Bowes-Rennox · 26 days ago
    State sanctioned bullying but it's regarded as one size fits all..
    If there's fraud they assume we're crooks.. This is a nail in the Tory coffin and will end up in court..
    Universal credit has never worked and never will.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    keepingitreal · 27 days ago
    PIP is one if the benefits on which DWP is concentrating this year in fraud crackdown. No need to spend that money investigating then. Bonus to claimants instead, right? More like self congratulatory bonus to DWP bosses.
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    denby · 27 days ago
    So the figure can be expressed as : 

    Just three in every 1,000 PIP claimants were frauds.
     
    Perhaps easier to understand than percentages for some people.

    At this rate I suggest the National Audit Office should be looking at the cost of large numbers of MRs and Appeals to the DWP compared to a more rational approach to, in particular, frequent reviews and refusing first claims of people with genetic or irreversible injury damage. In other words those whose functional needs can't improve.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Angela · 25 days ago
      @denby
      They have wasted millions, on employing assessment staff, who were making thousands a week in bonuses, for saying people were fit for work. Then there's the tribunal panels wages to pay, all this to get the three in a thousand fraudsters. I'm disgusted.
      This government are evil, the deaths and misery they have caused to sick people is immeasurable. And not a thing has been done to stop them.
      I'm so glad he got justice.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    lesley · 28 days ago
    Thank you for posting this information on here.  Newspapers such as the Daily Snail and other types of media would have the public believe that many of us claiming P.I.P. and D.L.A. are out and out frauds and scroungers.
    It is reassuring and helpful to read that these payments are not being fraudently claimed.

  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Rosie · 28 days ago
    So.... Ministers have done their very best to demonise PIP claimants and the press has helped their narrative with headlines like "You can get £737 a month for hay fever" etc.,  and THEN the DWP admits that there is such a small amount of PIP fraud that it doesn't even make 1%.  TOO LATE!!! The damage has been done. Claimants' mental health shot to pieces. The Tory faithful all riled up.  All for what?? Yet another effing lie. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Jen · 25 days ago
      @MrFibro Whilst I’m not voting for the Tories,
      The post office scandal and the blood scandal were over successive governments, and Tony Blair’s government looked into means testing disability benefits. Two sides of the same coin!
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Jen · 25 days ago
      @Rosie I believe it a way to means test disability benefits. Tony Blair’s government looked at it, and we were teased with means testing again last year! 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Sandra Bowes-Rennox · 26 days ago
      @MrFibro Well I certainly will and I wouldn't lower myself ever to vote Tory.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      MrFibro · 27 days ago
      @Rosie 3.5 million pip claimants should vote the Tories out @ the next coming GE. If you don't make the effort to vote, then you can only blame yourselves, by allowing this corrupt government to have another parliamentary term of 5 years. 

      1 - post office scandal
      2- contaminated blood scandal
      3 - watch this space - pip scandal.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Charlie · 28 days ago
    People constantly chat nonsense about people fraudulently claiming disability benefits. Glad to have some hard statistics to present in the face of ignorance in future.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    denby · 28 days ago
    I hope people who have time will write to all the papers, especially the red top type, to point out quoting the DWPs OWN figures here, that the only fraud when it comes to disability is the papers publishing headlines about workshy benefit scroungers. And write to the minister who thinks that mental illness is just a bit of life's normal ups and downs.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Aaron · 28 days ago
    Shame the figures don't include the fraudulent denials of claims people should be entitled to but have to appeal to overturn.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      lyndamb · 25 days ago
      @Sandra someone needs to call DWP out for all the lies.  Many years ago I had a retail business .  I had to rent the property out as a hysterectomy at age 35 meant I wa unable to work and couldnt sell the buiness or property.  I was claiming sickness benefit but was sent a threatening letter calling me to the Jobcentre.  I was questioned like a criminal and accused of working and claiming benefits.  I was then told I hadn't told them I was getting rent for the shop and not declaring it.  In fact I was getting a pittance declared to DWP and having it deducted from my benefit. 
      Years later I discovered I was one of many 1000's of women suffering from pelvic mesh damage ( the next unresolved NHS Scandal.)  I couldn't work  and reached pension age a year after I should have had  a pension  (oh  another unresolved scandal I was )born in the 1950's. I was eventually sent the figure my pension was to be.  7 call handlers told me my pension was correct the computer didn't lie.  I persevered sending them my calculation - in detail but it was the 7th person I spoke to who listened and told me DWP owed me more than my calculation and she would write with the correct amounts.    the letter came with an apology not only had they miscalculated my pension they had been charging me monthly interest for my mortgage and not sending it to the building society who in turn were telling me I owed them all this money.  I have more health issues over these years and when my Daughter tried to help me claim PIP because she came in to my home and found me in tears after yet another DWP grilling.
      12 months after the first forms were sent 3 appeals then a face to face miles from where I lived.  I saw a nurse who watched me walk in on crutches with an air boot on my foot then said "now don't worry we are not here to catch you out just to make sure you have filled in the form (40  pages I think it was) correctly.  She hadn't a clue of my health issues even quoted on her report I was dressed casually wearing slip on shoes.  I could hardly walk and hand n't worn 2 shows for years but it didn't stop her telling me to touch my toes " then said just show me how you put your knickers on every day.  I couldn't bend still can't  but as I said it took  12 months before the court sent the appeal my Daughter helped me make before it was returned to DWP and they pretended it wasn't their mistake.  They have a lot to answer for and so do the conservative Government .

        
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      The dogmother. · 25 days ago
      @Aaron Always said they should be made to stand before a court and give an account of why each person failed on their pip assessment when clearly the evidence before then should state otherwise. Made to explain why they saw something different as to what the 'customer' stated, and what their consultants and other Medical professionals stated. I an will to wager 99% would get a fair pip assessment with an award. Because they would never want to face a tribunal to be called out. But it's OK if we are put through it. It's a disgrace. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Sandra · 25 days ago
      @Aaron They must make a u  turn on this......I personally think this won't go ahead.and an apology. Blaming .sick people.............on such and low amount of money.
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