DWP should keep targeting benefit fraud gangs – not disabled people and carers, campaigners say

The government should target criminal gangs and wealthy tax fraudsters instead of criminalising carers who were mistakenly overpaid their benefits, campaigners have said.

An organised gang has been convicted of what has been described as the largest case of benefit fraud in England and Wales. The five members were found guilty of stealing £54m from the universal credit system by submitting thousands of false claims.

It comes as the government pledges to tackle benefit fraud – and just a week after a well-publicised case in which a woman was prosecuted for failing to declare her minimum wage Co-op job while caring for her mother.

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Vivienne Groom was found guilty of benefit fraud the DWP seized £16,000 from her inheritance.

Campaigners have said that cases like Groom’s cannot be compared to large organised gangs deliberately stealing from the benefits system, and the latest case must not be used to ramp up plans to target and criminalise claimants.

Instead, the government urged to turn its attention to tax fraudsters, who are “stealing from us and our public services too” but regularly go unpunished.

The amount of tax lost in Britain through non-payment, avoidance and fraud is around £36bn each year, according to official figures from HMRC.

Speaking about the organised gang, Ken Butler, welfare rights and policy advisor at Disability Rights UK, said: “This was a case of deliberate, organised, large sale benefit fraud by a criminal gang. Understandably, it was investigated and targeted by the DWP.

“However, how different this is from the tragic case of Vivienne Groom who was prosecuted for failing to declare her minimum wage Co-op job while caring for her mother. Ms Groom is an example of a case where any unintended overpayment should be written off, not prosecuted.”

Annual statistics on benefit fraud and error show that fraud and error in 2022-23 fell to 3.6% of welfare expenditure. This includes a reduced rate of both fraudulent overpayments at 2.7% (£6.4bn) and claimant error at 0.6% (£1.4bn). 

Around 11.5% of universal credit overpayments were due to fraud in 2022-2023, equating to around £5bn.

The disability benefit system is often targeted in discussions around fraud, but estimated personal independence payment (PIP) fraud was just 0.2% of PIP spending in 2022-23.

The £40m lost to PIP fraud compares with an estimated £60m in underpayments of PIP caused by DWP error in 2022-23.

Butler added: “The DWP would do better to stop targeting individual disabled people and their carers for criminal fraud action and simplify the claiming and administration of benefits and actively promote their take up.”

Disability and welfare activist Ben Claimant agreed. Posting on social media, he said: “This is what real benefit fraud looks like, an organised gang of foreign nationals with ‘benefit factories’, using stolen identities and forged documents.”

He does not believe that cases such as Groom’s, in which people are overpaid their benefits because of a mistake, are comparable.

He told the Big Issue: “When I first read Vivienne Groom’s story involving fraud and proceeds of crime I thought her case was going to be quite serious, but the more I read the more alarmed I felt. This woman had been caring for her mum.

“She was doing the best she could working part-time in a minimum-wage job and had been badly advised. What happened to her was quite appalling and the DWP’s handling of the case and its lack of care made it so much worse.

“We should be thanking Vivienne for what she has done as a carer, but instead the state has punished her. When you compare what she has done to organised gangs with benefit factories it breaks my heart seeing what happened to her.”

Catherine Rowett, Green Party spokesperson on work, employment and social security said instead of focusing on benefit fraud, the government should turn its attention to tax fraud.

Rowett said: “I’m struck by the fact that the news organisations are flagging up this £50m benefit fraud—which they note is the biggest ever benefit fraud scam. Indeed, that is a lot of money, but that’s comparable to just one of a daily list of tax fraud cases that go mostly unreported.”

She cited the example of Lord Bamford and other Tory donors from the JCB manufacturing empire, who are currently the subject of a £500m tax evasion investigation. In reporting around Lord Bamford’s retirement this week, that was not mentioned.

“What’s the underlying agenda?” Rowett asked. “We’re encouraged to hate and distrust those who claim benefits, because they are pictured as stealing money from the treasury. But wealthy people who owe money to the treasury and find ways to wriggle out of paying it – aren’t they stealing from us and from our public services too?”

Rowett also raised concern around the racially-charged rhetoric used in the coverage of the benefit fraud case.

She said: “We know for a fact that European citizens contribute more in UK taxes and draw less in benefits than UK citizens, on average, and that tax evasion and tax avoidance by the wealthy far outstrips benefit fraud in terms of the cost to the treasury. These things are also costly in social terms, and lead to ever increasing inequality and a culture of hatred and suspicion.”

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