Accredited official statistics

Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2015/16 estimates

Final estimates of fraud and error levels in the benefit system in Great Britain in the financial year 2015/16.

Documents

Fraud and error in the benefit system: final 2015/16 estimates first release

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Tables: Fraud and error in the benefit system, final 2015/16 estimates

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Fraud and error in the benefit system: background information and methodology

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Details

This report provides estimates of fraud and error levels in the benefit system in Great Britain for the financial year 2015/16.

The main points from the report are:

  • 1.9% of total benefit expenditure was overpaid due to fraud and error (up from 1.8% in 2014/15)
  • the estimated value of overpayments is £3.3 billion (a rise from the 2014/15 estimated value of £3.0 billion)
  • the net government loss, after recoveries, is £2.2 billion, or 1.3% of benefit expenditure
  • 1.0% of total benefit expenditure (or £1.5 billion) was underpaid due to fraud and error

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More information

The final estimates on this page replace the archived preliminary 2015/2016 estimates published in May 2016.

Send any comments or questions about our fraud and error estimates to caxtonhouse.femaenquiries@dwp.gov.uk

Updates to this page

Published 8 December 2016
Last updated 27 April 2017 + show all updates
  1. Amended Table 13 in 'Tables: Fraud and error in the benefit system, final 2015/16 estimates'. Some negative values were formatted incorrectly affecting some occasionally measured benefits. Footnote amended in relation to Housing Benefit recovery data.

  2. First published.

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