The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) expects to save more than £13.6 billion by the end of the decade by tackling fraud and error in the benefits system, a new report has revealed.

According to the National Audit Office (NAO), the DWP has already saved an estimated £4.5bn of this through counter-fraud interventions between April 2022 and March 2025.

These savings are expected to grow as the government implements a new strategy around fraud and error , with an expanded use of data analytics and machine learning.

However, charities and campaigners have repeatedly raised concerns that the methods used could create further “surveillance, harsher rules and punishments” in a system designed to support some of the most vulnerable people in the country.

Jen Clark, economic, cultu

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