The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences relating to “dishonestly making a false representation to make a gain for oneself or another or to cause loss to another or to expose another to risk” in each of the last five years from 2008 to 2012 (latest data available) can be viewed in the table.

However, it is not possible from centrally held data to separately analyse which of these prosecutions related to applications for legal aid.

The Fraud Investigation Service (FIS) is responsible for benefit fraud investigation within the Department for Work and Pensions.

The figures provided in the following table are the number of cases closed for the last five financial years (1 April to 31 March), following an investigation.

The figures provided in the following table are the number of cases where fraud was proved and the subsequent outcome for each financial year requested.

The number of cases closed may not directly relate to the number of administrative penalties, cautions-and convictions in the same year and therefore the data cannot be directly compared. This is due to the length of time it can take for some cases to conclude and sentencing be passed, which may span more than one tax year.

The information supplied by the Department has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. It is therefore possible this information may change due to operational reasons.

The Department introduced the ‘one-strike’ penalty for conviction, penalty or caution for benefit offences under The Welfare Reform Act 2009 which came into effect from 1 April 2010.

In October 2010 we outlined our plans for reducing fraud and error overpayments in the welfare system by £1.4 billion by March 2015 through our fraud and error strategy “Tackling fraud and error in the benefit and tax credits systems”. The strategy was refreshed in a joint report with HMRC and the Cabinet Office in February 2012.

These plans include delivering an integrated risk and intelligence service, a hub for collecting and analysing claimant information and applying fraud and error prevention filters. The Department is also developing the Single Fraud Investigation Service with HMRC and local authorities, joining expertise and efforts in investigating fraud. We have also worked with partners on the mobile regional taskforce pilots focusing on intelligence led campaigns in high fraud risk areas.

The Welfare Reform Act 2012 provides the Department with tougher powers to punish and deter welfare cheats. A tougher minimum administrative penalty was introduced in May 2012 and from 1 October a new civil penalty came into force for claimant error. The Act will also introduce more stringent mechanisms for rapidly and effectively recovering debts. The Department and HMRC have increased the maximum rate at which fraud debts can be recovered by deduction from benefits by around 25%. This new recovery rate for fraud debts was introduced in April 2012.

With the introduction of universal credit in 2013, the benefits system will also be made simpler and, as far as possible, the opportunities for fraud and error to enter our systems will be greatly reduced.

The estimated amount of money lost through benefit fraud can be found on the DWP National Statistics Fraud and Error in the Benefit System webpage

http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd2/index.php?page=fraud_error

For the last 10 years the estimated level of benefit fraud was as follows:

A proportion of this money fraudulently claimed is subsequently identified and recovered by the Department. For overpayment recovery purposes a debt can be classified only as fraudulent if a customer has been convicted of an offence, admitted the offence in an interview under caution or agreed to an administrative penalty. Otherwise the debt is classified as customer error. The total value of overpayments identified in 2011-12 where recovery was sought totalled £486.9 million. The total the Department recovered in 2011-12 was over £375 million, of which £354 million related to benefit overpayments. The actual amount of benefit overpayments classified as fraud that have been recovered since 2007-08 are shown in the following table.

The Department's Fraud Investigation Service had 2,823 full time equivalent members of staff in employment on 12 August 2012 to investigate benefit fraud.

The Department's Fraud Investigation Service total spend for investigating benefit fraud in 2011-12 was £99.5 million.

The total amount of recoverable overpayments identified as a result of fraud investigations for 2011-12 is £214,832,021.

The information supplied by the Department for recoverable overpayments has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. It is therefore possible this information may change due to operational reasons.

It is not possible to say how many people were prosecuted for failing to declare work or earnings while claiming jobseeker’s allowance (JSA). However departmental records indicate that the number of people prosecuted for failing to declare any income or circumstance affecting JSA claims were:

November 2009 to March 2010: 216

2010-11: 1,264

2011-12: 1,480.

The above figures include all offences (not just working while claiming benefit) and could therefore also relate to:

non-declaration of capital

non-declaration of a partner in employment

non-declaration of other income affecting JSA.

The number of prosecutions arising from fraudulent claims to JSA is not available prior to November 2009 because information by benefit type was not recorded before that date.

Data source:

Fraud Referral and Intervention Management System (FRAIMS)