The DWP must ‘take responsibility’ for its mistakes, campaigners say.

The Department for Work and Pensions has forced 680,000 people to pay for the government’s own mistakes – but now campaigners are trying to get the law changed. The DWP must ‘take responsibility’ for its mistakes, campaigners say.

In 2023/24, there were 686,756 cases of Universal Credit overpayment debts raised by the DWP which were identified as “official error”, research from Public Law Project (PLP) has revealed, meaning it was the fault of the department.

The charity now written to Labour Party MP and work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall to legislate to bring a legal end to the issue. Shameem Ahmad, chief executive officer of PLP, said: “No one is expecting the DWP not to make mistakes. However, it is incumbent on the department to take responsibility for those mistakes, rather than pushing that burden onto people it should in fact be supporting.

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“These official payment errors have real and highly detrimental consequences for people – causing sudden financial pressures and anxieties, through no fault of their own. This is the government’s chance to ensure it does not plunge hundreds of thousands of more people into debt, go some way in restoring public trust, and ultimately incentivise the DWP to not make errors in the first place.”

One client told PLP: “When I was told I owed DWP over £8,000 I was in disbelief. Paying it back even at a small amount a month would have taken me years and meant making day to day sacrifices for my family. The worst part was I knew I had done everything right and DWP were in the wrong.

“While the process of going to court has caused me a lot of stress, I finally feel I’ve been heard and I hope my case can be used by others in the future. I would urge anyone that finds themselves in my position of being ignored by the DWP to get help and advice, as I could not have done this without North Bristol Advice Centre and Public Law Project.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “Overpayment by official error accounts for just 0.3% of our overall benefits spend, and we always work with people who have been overpaid to ensure repayments are affordable.

“We have an obligation to protect public funds and to ensure money lost to fraud and error is recovered, which is why we are bringing forward the biggest fraud crackdown in a generation, saving the taxpayer £1.5 billion over the next five years.”