Five people stole £50 million in taxpayers money through thousands of false Universal Credit claims.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride MP has said investigators from the Department for Work and Pensions will continue to “hunt down and convict those who steal from the taxpayer” after five members of a criminal gang pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering-related offences this week. The gang falsely claimed more than £50 million in Universal Credit between October 2016 and May 2021.
Investigators even discovered three ‘benefit factories’ in London, the CPS said, claiming to help people get a National Insurance number using ‘claim packs’ containing forged and false documents. But after applicants made their claims, they left them in the hands of the gang who laundered money through a number of different accounts.
“That's why we have our £900 million pound fraud plan so that we can continue to hunt down and convict those who steal from the taxpayer.” Ben Reid, specialist prosecutor for the CPS, said: “This case is the largest benefit fraud prosecution ever brought to the courts in England and Wales. This will also see the measurement of DLA for the first time since the financial year ending 2005, which concludes its response to a consultation that ran in summer, 2018. The DWP intends to publish the fraud and error report for the financial year ending 2024 in May of the same year .
Benefits DWP Benefits Cheats Financial Crime
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