Member

My noble friend Lady Lister asked some important and quite detailed questions. She asked whether I could give any data on the circumstances of official-error overpayments. We publish annual national statistics that estimate fraud and error in the system and, in the last financial year to March 2025, they showed that 0.8% of UC expenditure was overpaid due to official error. The statistics include breakdown by reason. For example, last year in universal credit, housing costs were estimated to contribute most to official error, at 0.3% of UC expenditure.