Major DWP benefit fraud crackdown announced in budget

Speaking to the house, she said: "I am building on our successful use of targeted checks on welfare claims to root out fraud and error and prevent public money being paid to people who are not entitled to it. "

The savings will come by extending a crackdown on fraudulent and mistaken universal credit payments via the targeted case review (TCR) scheme.

This was launched to identify claimants to be reviewed for potential overpayment or other error.

On its website, the DWP says: "Targeted Case Review (TCR) was established in 2022 to identify and address incorrectness across Universal Credit (UC) claims, providing vital insight on new and emerging ways to identify fraud and error entering the social security system.

"The focus has been to scale at pace to reach the target of 5,930 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) reviewing agents blended across DWP and external provider TP (formally known as Teleperformance) agents by March 2025, with the aim of saving £13.6 billion in Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) by March 2030.

"Since its inception to the end of the latest financial year (FY) 2024 to 2025, TCR has reviewed over 1 million claims, achieving expected AME savings of over £1 billion."

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Ms Reeves has also vowed to reduce the costs of Government debt and is expected to take steps to increase the buffer she has against future economic shocks to avoid having to keep coming back for more tax in future budgets.

“Today I will take the fair and necessary choices to deliver on our promise of change."

She added: “I will not return Britain back to austerity, nor will I lose control of public spending with reckless borrowing.

“And I will push ahead with the biggest drive for growth in a generation.”