The UK government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has saved £4.4 million over three years by using machine learning to tackle fraud, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). However, the public spending watchdog found the department's ability to expand this work is limited by fragmented IT systems and poor cross-government data standards.

In its October 22 report , the NAO praised the DWP's efforts but urged it to go further.

UK pensions dept hands Softcat £250M for Microsoft subscriptions

"DWP should build on its existing use of data analytics to explore how these emerging technologies may help to detect and prevent fraud and error," said report director Laura Brackwell.

The challenge is significant. The NAO said the DWP's IT systems are not fully integrated , preventing

See Full Page