DWP and HMRC to clamp down on benefit fraud after £400m boost

The Budget has allocated nearly £400million for the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) and HM Revenue of Customs (HMRC) to tackle fraud. The counter-fraud and error funding was increased by £110m in 2025-26.

This will be used to hire extra staff and enforce new legislative powers to recover debt. Around 3,000 extra staff will be brought on by DWP and 180 by HMRC to focus on error and fraud welfare payments.

HMRC will get a separate funding package to hire an extra debt-management 600 staff. DWP's recruitment drive will save a net £665m a year by 2029-30 by "correcting past and future payments that would otherwise have been incorrect without DWP’s intervention".

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HMRC's counter-fraud push will net the exchequer £90m a year by the same date. DWP will use part of the £110m funding package to carry out extra checks on Universal Credit claimants who have changes in their circumstances.

This is projected to save £250m a year by 2029-30, Civil Service World reports. DWP’s Universal Credit fraud and error taskforce has also been extended by the government.

DWP announced it was setting up a new base in Swindon for the Targeted Case Review team last year. This base reviews existing Universal Credit claims and uses "enhanced data analytics to develop new ways to prevent and detect fraud".

The two-year extension is expected to save £2.5bn a year by 2029-30.

Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency

Child poverty is soaring in Birmingham and without urgent change, will only get worse. Having worked with charities and community groups, BirminghamLive is campaigning for the following changes to start to turn the tide:

1. End the two-child benefit cap
2. Provide free school meals to every child in poverty
3. Create a city “aid bank” for baby and child essentials
4. Protect children’s and youth services
5. Create permanent, multi year Household Support Fund and give more Discretionary Housing grants
6. Set up child health and wellbeing hubs in our most deprived neighbourhoods
7. Appoint a Birmingham child poverty tsar
8. Provide free public travel for young people

You can see why in more detail here.

Read our full report Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency here.

What you can do to help.