The Parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee has highlighted the lack of an IT system to make automatic cross checks of housing data to prevent fraudulent claims for Universal Credit.
Housing benefit will form a significant part of Universal Credit when all benefits are rolled into one payment.
Under the current housing benefit system, local authorities can cross-check claims across a range of data relating to other council services. The Committee believes that it is vital that a fully developed and tested IT system, which allows DWP to cross-check data, is in place before Universal Credit is implemented on a national scale. Worryingly, it appears that there is no automated system in use in the Pathfinders and is not clear when or how a system will be available.
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