Caroline Selman

Everything that John's just been describing of people's experience of the system as whether it's one that you see as supportive and one that you can trust or whether it's one that you feel is set up to potentially assume the worst of you or to be punitive.

Everything that John's just been describing of people's experience of the system as whether it's one that you see as supportive and one that you can trust or whether it's one that you feel is set up to potentially assume the worst of you or to be punitive.

We see from casework that quite a common story is, like you say, where somebody has been awarded something by the DWP, relied on that as being something that they are entitled to, have often gone back and double checked and said, am I definitely entitled to that before then relying on that to spend it?

We see from casework that quite a common story is, like you say, where somebody has been awarded something by the DWP, relied on that as being something that they are entitled to, have often gone back and double checked and said, am I definitely entitled to that before then relying on that to spend it?

And then finding that they weren't entitled to it and having it recovered from them, causing the financial hardship that comes from that. So that's something that is very familiar to us from casework.

And then finding that they weren't entitled to it and having it recovered from them, causing the financial hardship that comes from that. So that's something that is very familiar to us from casework.

And again, in terms of DWP's own data, in terms of that context of official error, so where that mistake has been made by DWP, we know from statistics from a couple of years back, which have stopped publishing now, that three quarters of the overpayments they had on their debt management system were things that were caused by DWP.

And again, in terms of DWP's own data, in terms of that context of official error, so where that mistake has been made by DWP, we know from statistics from a couple of years back, which have stopped publishing now, that three quarters of the overpayments they had on their debt management system were things that were caused by DWP.

And that's partly reflective of a change in policy and the legal framework which was introduced when universal credit was introduced, which basically gave DWP the power to recover overpayments even when it was their mistake. That said, they do have discretion as to whether to do it. And one of the concerns that we have is that they don't really apply that discretion before they apply deductions.

And that's partly reflective of a change in policy and the legal framework which was introduced when universal credit was introduced, which basically gave DWP the power to recover overpayments even when it was their mistake. That said, they do have discretion as to whether to do it. And one of the concerns that we have is that they don't really apply that discretion before they apply deductions.

generally the default position is to recover that overpayment regardless of the context and regardless of the potential harm for somebody if it's recovered, even if it is to do with their own mistake.

generally the default position is to recover that overpayment regardless of the context and regardless of the potential harm for somebody if it's recovered, even if it is to do with their own mistake.

In terms of what people can do is that people can, in those contexts, get in touch with DWP to ask for some relief in terms of the rate that it's recovered, or they can ask for it to be waived as well. So if particularly in that kind of circumstance where they've relied on something and checked about it, that is the kind of context where they can and should be able to ask for a waiver.

In terms of what people can do is that people can, in those contexts, get in touch with DWP to ask for some relief in terms of the rate that it's recovered, or they can ask for it to be waived as well. So if particularly in that kind of circumstance where they've relied on something and checked about it, that is the kind of context where they can and should be able to ask for a waiver.

What we've found is that that is not well communicated to people and that people don't know that they have the ability to request that and ask for that and that in some circumstances DWP really should be granting that waiver, which is something we're quite keen for people to be more aware of and for DWP to do more as well so that people know about it as well.

What we've found is that that is not well communicated to people and that people don't know that they have the ability to request that and ask for that and that in some circumstances DWP really should be granting that waiver, which is something we're quite keen for people to be more aware of and for DWP to do more as well so that people know about it as well.

Yeah, so what we know, and DWP has been very public about the fact that it's putting about £70 million into developing what it refers to as data analytics and machine learning, in particular in order to try and predict or identify whether cases should be investigated for fraud.

Yeah, so what we know, and DWP has been very public about the fact that it's putting about £70 million into developing what it refers to as data analytics and machine learning, in particular in order to try and predict or identify whether cases should be investigated for fraud.

The concerns we have about that is that those things have been flagged up by, for example, the National Audit Office as having particular inherent risks of bias, which is also something that we know from other contexts in terms of risks associated particularly with predictive tools, where there's a risk that what happens is that they are baking in pre-existing biases that might exist in the system or flushing out some other forms of bias.

The concerns we have about that is that those things have been flagged up by, for example, the National Audit Office as having particular inherent risks of bias, which is also something that we know from other contexts in terms of risks associated particularly with predictive tools, where there's a risk that what happens is that they are baking in pre-existing biases that might exist in the system or flushing out some other forms of bias.