Department for Work and Pensions – £3.5 billion of overpayments detected by auditors
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Here is a strange paradox. The government has imposed a tough and to many people unfair benefits and tax credits regime which has squeezed the poorest – both the unemployed and those in work.
Yet this summer accountants have revealed that HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions has paid out £5 billion to people on benefits and low incomes who should not have received it. And they predict that even more will receive these payments next year. I have written about this inTribune magazine this week.
The disclosure comes in the annual audit of both departments by Parliament’s financial watchdog, the National Audit Office, who have qualified the accounts of both departments – as not being a true and accurate description of public spending.
According to the…
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