Rachel Reeves will be “doubling down” on her mission to crackdown on benefits fraud next week as she will announce the extension of the taskforce stamping it out. In her Budget, the Chancellor will unveil that the group tasked with clamping down on fraudulent universal credit claims will continue, with the aim of saving £1.2bn by March 2031.

This comes after a record £6.5bn was lost to universal credit fraud last year, and an estimated £9.5bn was lost to benefit overpayments and inaccurate applicants.

A Treasury source said: “We will never tolerate fraud, error or waste in the welfare system. Every pound of taxpayers’ money should be spent with the same care with which working people spend their own money.

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