The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) distributes welfare benefits to approximately 23.7 million individuals throughout Great Britain. This total encompasses 13 million recipients of the New or Basic State Pension - categorised as a contributory benefit - alongside those receiving at least one DWP benefit.

The recently released annual 'Fraud and error in the benefit system' report, which calculates how much money the Department has incorrectly distributed during the 2024/25 financial year through either overpayments or underpayments, reveals that £9.5 billion was overpaid to claimants, representing 3.3 per cent of total benefits expenditure.

This marks a decrease from £9.7bn (3.6 percent) in 2023/24. The overall rate of benefit underpayments stayed constant at £1.2bn (0.4 pe

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