Organised crime gangs behind industrial-scale benefits fraud will face having their homes raided in a major crackdown, the Work and Pensions Secretary vows today.
The crooks will have their luxury goods, bags of cash and mobile phones taken by Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) investigators using tough new powers, Liz Kendall says.
Her flagship law will also allow the state to claw back welfare payments directly from the bank accounts of small-time benefits fraudsters who refuse to pay up – and even impose two-year driving bans on those with the biggest debts.
Writing in the Mail as her Bill reaches the Commons, she says it could save taxpayers as much as £1.5billion over the next five years.
Benefit overpayments as a result of fraud totalled a staggering £7.4billion in 2023-24, up from £6.3billion the previous year.
‘We will ensure taxpayers have confidence that spending on social security goes to support those who really need it, not those who seek to exploit it,’ Ms Kendall says.
‘That is what the public expects. Today in Parliament we take the next step towards recouping some of the money lost over the last few years to fraud and waste.’
She cites the biggest benefit fraudsters in the country’s history, who were jailed last year.
Writing in the Mail as her Bill reaches the Commons, Liz Kendall says the new measures could save taxpayers as much as £1.5billion over the next five years
Five Bulgarian members of a gang that falsely claimed more than £50 million in Universal Credit in the largest benefit fraud in England
Two of the criminals – Galina Nikolova, 38, and Stoyan Stoyanov, 27 – pictured together in 2020 while on holiday in Turkey
Huge stacks of cash found during the investigation
The three women and two men from Bulgaria made thousands of false claims for universal credit between 2016 and 2021, netting £53million.
They operated three ‘benefit factories’ in north London where repeated claims were submitted.
Claimants were flown into the country to submit forms then left the money in the gang’s hands.
When their homes were finally raided, police found bundles of cash stuffed in shopping bags and suitcases, a luxury car and a haul of designer watches and jewellery.
Ms Kendall says her Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill is putting any other organised benefit fraudsters ‘on notice’.
‘We will give DWP’s specialist investigators new search and seizure powers,’ she adds.
‘DWP investigators will be able to apply directly to the courts for a warrant to enter their home and take their luxury goods, bags of cash, and mobile phones as evidence.’
