DWP benefit claimants received £4billion less than they were entitled to last year

The Public Accounts Committee warned people claiming disability benefits are also getting ‘unacceptably poor service’ – waiting on average 10 times longer for calls to be answered

Benefit claimants received £4billion less than they were entitled to last year putting them at increased risk of hardship, MPs have warned.

The Public Accounts Committee also said people claiming disability benefits are getting “unacceptably poor service” – as they wait on average 10 times longer for their calls to be answered.

The MPs’ report found benefit claimants recieved £4billion less than they were entitled to in 2023-24. This is a rise of £500million on the previous year which stood at £3.5billion.

The underpayment rates are the highest for disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and the Disability Living Allowance. It said many claimants need to inform the DWP if their condition has worsened – meaning they are entitled to more money – but a significant number of calls go unanswered.

The report found in 2023-24, people on Employment Support Allowance waited on average 26 minutes and 53 seconds from the DWP to answer their calls. This is compared to an average of 2 minutes and 45 seconds for those on Universal Credit.

The MPs said: “These underpayments leave the claimants affected with less money than they should have, making their finances more precarious than they should be”.

The report adds £9.5billion was overpaid – down to fraud and error – in the same year. This could be deliberate fraud – either by individuals or organised crime groups – or unintended errors by both claimants or the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

At the Autumn Budget last year the government announced an extra £110million to combat fraud and error alongside an additional 3,000 staff. New laws have also been set out to give the DWP power to recover money directly from the bank accounts in cases of benefit fraud.

Committee Chairman said: “In some cases, claimants are literally calling for help and receiving no answer, resulting in increasing risks to their financial security. The British public would be forgiven for thinking the state is AWOL just when it needs it most. The DWP must do more to ensure that claimants are reunited with the money to which they are entitled, as well as to understand the needs of vulnerable claimants.”

He added: “We are also as concerned at the picture of growing underpayments as we are with overpayments, and have little sympathy for the DWP’s argument that this rise is driven by a growing propensity for fraud in society.This amounts to saying that the DWP’s job is too hard to do well – not a defence that this Committee is prepared to accept.”

Richard Kramer, chief executive of national disability charity Sense, said the report’s findings are “no surprise”. He said: “We’ve been told again and again by disabled people that getting the help they’re entitled to has been an ordeal.

“In our research, half of people with complex disabilities said the benefits application process made the impact of their condition worse – it shouldn’t be like this. Disabled people have been paying the price of a broken benefits system for far too long.”

A DWP spokesman said: “We have reduced phoneline waiting times and are providing tailored help for customers with additional needs while also uprating benefits by 1.7% this April to ensure that customers get all the support they are entitled to.

“The report does not consider that we are already taking action on fraud and error through our new Fraud Error & Recovery Bill which will help us protect claimants by stopping errors earlier alongside saving an estimated £1.5 billion of taxpayer money over the next five years.”