Fraud and Error in the Benefit System
Latest Publication
The latest National Statistics report, Fraud and Error in the Benefit System: 2011/12 Estimates was released on 29 November 2012 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority. This report is produced by the Department for Work and Pensions.
The latest report estimates fraud and error levels in the benefit system in Great Britain.
- For 2011/12 it is estimated that 2.1 per cent of total benefit expenditure was overpaid due to fraud and error, the same as the 2010/11 estimate.
- The estimated value of overpayments is £3.4bn, which is a rise from the 2010/11 estimated value of £3.2bn.
- For 2011/12, it is estimated that 0.8 per cent of total benefit expenditure was underpaid due to fraud and error, the same as the 2010/11 estimate.
- The estimated value of underpayments is £1.3bn, which is a rise from the 2010/11 estimated value of £1.2bn.
The National Statistics First Release is available here 
To access the latest publication click here
To access the latest supplementary tables click here 
Next Planned Release Date: May 2013
If you have any comments, questions or any general queries regarding our publication, please email Joanne Dalzell from the Fraud and Error Measurement Analysis Team.
Latest News
20 December 2012
The above report 'Fraud and Error in the Benefit System: 2011/12 Estimates', first published on 29 November, has been re-published today due to minor changes to some of the Income Support underpayment estimates. All other underpayment estimates are unaffected. Overpayment estimates have not been affected. Please see the report for more details of these changes.
29 November 2012
As well as publishing the new 2011/12 estimates, we are also re-publishing a revised edition of the 2010/11 estimates Fraud and Error in the Benefit System: 2010/11 Estimates (Revised Edition) which was previously re-published on 17 May 2012.
This revised report is being published due to minor changes to some of the previously published Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance overpayment confidence intervals. No revisions have been made to the central estimates and totals for fraud, customer error and official error in sections 2 - 6 of the report.
You may also be interested to know that these statistics have recently been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority. For a full report of their findings please click here
Uses and Users Questionnaire
We are writing to all users of our statistics to try and understand more about why people are interested in these statistics and how they use them. We are gathering this information so that we can publish more on the uses and users of our statistics within our 'Uses and Users' document - see below link to this under 'Useful Documents and Links'.
We would very much appreciate it if you could complete the attached questionnaire 
and return it to Joanne Dalzell. The questionnaire will only take 5-10 minutes to complete and will help us greatly in understanding the different types of uses and users of our statistics.
Previous Publications
For all previously published fraud and error in the benefit system reports please click on the below link
Publications and supplementary tables are available from this contents page
Useful Documents and Links
For further information on how our statistics are produced, who uses our statistics and comparable statistics for Northern Ireland and HMRC Tax Credits, please see the document links below: -
- Quality and Methodology
- Uses and Users
- Ad hocs and pricing
- Variance and Confidence Intervals
- IS, JSA and SPC Technical Appendix
- Housing Benefit Technical Appendix
- Northern Ireland Fraud and Error in the Benefit System statistics are in the Social Security Agency annual reports
- HMRC estimates of Error and Fraud in Tax Credits
