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Starmer to promise welfare fraud crackdown in bid to free up cash for public services

23 Sep 2024 3 minute read
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Photo Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Welfare fraudsters will be dealt with faster under new legislation expected to save the taxpayer £1.6 billion over the next five years, the Prime Minister is set to announce.

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to promise to “leave no stone unturned” as his Government seeks to “rebuild our public services” during his speech to the Labour Party conference on Tuesday, his first conference address as Prime Minister.

Part of his speech will include a new Fraud, Error and Debt Bill to modernise the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), allowing it to recover money lost to fraud while protecting vulnerable claimants from mounting debts.

It will also contain powers to help officials keep up with more sophisticated fraud, as Labour said fraud and error in the social security system cost the country £10 billion a year.

Alongside the Bill, the Prime Minister is expected to announce plans for wider welfare reform to help get people back into work, with details to be unveiled later this year.

Tax avoiders

Sir Keir is expected to say: “We will get the welfare bill down, because we will tackle long-term sickness and get people back to work.

“We will make every penny work for you because we will root out waste and go after tax avoiders.

“There will be no stone left unturned, no innovation ignored and no return to Tory austerity.

“We will rebuild our public services, protect working people and do this in a Labour way. That is a promise.”

Tackling welfare fraud forms part of the Government’s wider war against corruption, fraud and tax evasion, with plans for a Covid Corruption Commissioner already announced.

Sir Keir is expected to argue that savings made by tackling fraud can then be redirected into other public services as his Government seeks to fill what it describes as a £22 billion “black hole” left by its predecessors.

Among the measures included in the proposed Bill are new powers to allow the DWP to take control of fraud investigations and to recover money from those who could pay it back but have avoided doing so.

Clash

Labour also stressed that the Bill would contain safeguarding measures for vulnerable welfare claimants, and staff would be trained to the highest standards on the appropriate use of new powers.

But the announcement could set up another clash with the left of the Labour Party, which has previously argued that the Government should focus more on tax avoidance by large corporations and the rich rather than benefit fraud.

Labour has also promised a crackdown on tax avoidance, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves saying the Government would hire 5,000 more compliance officers at HMRC to do so.


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Bethan
Bethan
10 days ago

Sounds sleazy

Ash P
Ash P
10 days ago

Every government promises this, this is nothing new. We’ll see how he implements this. Based on what he’s done so far he’ll just throw everyone on benefits into a mincer.

Maybe if they can get some suits and frocks bought for them they wouldn’t try and scrounge the extra benefits.

hdavies15
hdavies15
10 days ago
Reply to  Ash P

.. maybe the only reason they fiddle benefits is so they can buy some new clothes. Starmer and Co, get yer fingers out, the real robbery is going on at the top end of the pile and you are starting to appear complicit.

S Duggan
S Duggan
10 days ago

We seem to be hearing a lot of the same old rhetoric from this government. And, as the article touches on, no targeting of the real problem within our society – making the ultra rich and mega corporations pay their fair share of tax. It’s that that’s the root cause of the inequality in this country, along with centralisation. Nothing is going to change until they do.

Steve Woods
Steve Woods
9 days ago

Can’t go upsetting all those rich donors by clamping down on tax evaders, can we Keith?

It’s far easier to punch down than up, especially if you’re as frit of the rich as New New Labour.

Karen
Karen
9 days ago

Picking on the old and the disabled. Why do the workers vote for them? Blair’s new government threw me of the DLA. I was unable to walk as my hips had worn away but too young for an op. Wasn’t even examined. My consultant went spare. It was given back without any bother but they’d saved 6 months money. How about the rich who hide any income?

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