Last year, fraudsters pretending to be single claimants swindled an astonishing £1.1 billion in benefits, recent analysis reveals. The number of individuals falsely claiming single status has surged, enabling scammers to fraudulently gain approximately £3.1 million every day.
By concealing the presence of a cohabiting partner, claimants illegally receive around £2,000 more annually compared to honest couples who report their living arrangements to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke has called for a complete overhaul of the benefits system to address these loopholes. While Universal Credit (UC) applications are made individually, couples’ combined circumstances affect the payment amount. Due to shared living costs, the benefit rate for couples is deliberately lower than that for single individuals.
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The DWP uses its Living Together as a Married Couple (LTAMC) guidelines to determine if unmarried adults residing in the same household qualify as a couple. Generally, UC payments are made to one member of the household, though in some cases, separate payments may be appropriate.
One notable fraud case involved Alan Forsythe, 37, and his wife Jemma, 36, who falsely claimed to live apart to unlawfully obtain over £50,000 in benefits. Their deception was exposed after they posted holiday photos together online. The couple had lived together with their children in Blackpool from 2019 to 2023.
The DWP emphasized its commitment to combating fraud and errors, noting that the overall fraud and error rate has dropped to 3.2% — the lowest since the pandemic began. New legal powers under the Fraud Act allow authorities to pursue offenders vigorously and recover misappropriated funds, including through enhanced access to bank data for detecting fraudulent claims.