The DWP considers that the rate of fraud in relation to personal independence payment (PIP) is so small that it is assessed at 0% in the 2024 “Fraud and error in the benefits system annual report”. In total, the combined rate for both fraud and error in universal credit (UC) is 32 times higher than for PIP.
The report looks at fraud and other overpayments in the benefits system.
It found that the rate of fraud for different benefits in the year ending April 2024 was:
- Universal credit (UC) 10.9%
- Pension credit (PC) 3.9%
- Housing benefit (HB) 3.9%
- Personal independence payment (PIP) 0%
The report also looks at overpayments not caused by fraud.
For PIP, the majority of overpayments are put down to claimant error, mainly when claimants fail to report an improvement in their functional needs. However, even this has decreased in the last year from 0.9% in 2023 to a tiny 0.3% in 2024. The rate of overpayments of PIP due to official error on the part of the DWP was 0.1%.
In total, overpayments for all reasons, including fraud was just 0.4% for PIP.
For UC it was 12.9%. This is a massive 32 times higher than for PIP.
For PC it was 9.7%
For HB it was 6.3%.
So, by a very considerable margin, PIP is the benefit least prone to fraud and to error.
You can download a copy of the “Fraud and error in the benefits system annual report”.
