Almost 15,000 Universal Credit claimants say the Government is wrongly asking them to repay some of their benefits.
Many claimants allege they are being wrongly asked to repay some of their benefits because they missed a message or phone call from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The DWP paused its usual face-to-face identity verification for Universal Credit claimants at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The department is now checking to see if any claimants have been paid too much, and ordering many to repay cash if so.
Around 125,000 people have been told they should not have had any Universal Credit at all.
Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth told the Independent : “It’s shameful that ministers are pursuing what could be thousands of people for debt they do not owe, in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
“Instead of parading around supporting their chosen leadership candidates, ministers in the DWP should be focused on their day jobs and solving the pressing problems in their department.”
Claire Hall of the Child Poverty Action Group charity said thousands of claimants might be hit by the move.
A DWP spokesperson said: “During the pandemic, we rightly prioritised ensuring the welfare safety net reached those suddenly in difficulty.
"We have been contacting claimants via their preferred contact method to discuss aspects of claims we need to verify, and given them two weeks to respond.
“If we are belatedly provided evidence proving entitlement, we will reinstate benefit and cancel any debt straight away.”
Last month The Mirror reported that the Government spent more than £100million investigating benefits fraud in the last three years.
The figure would have been even higher, but during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic many fraud investigators were roped into helping with huge increases in benefits claimants.
The definition of benefits fraud by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is broad, and does not just cover people setting out to deceive.
It includes "someone obtaining state benefit they are not entitled to" as well as "deliberately failing to report a change in their personal circumstances".
A Freedom of Information request submitted by The Mirror found that the DWP spent £103.3million probing suspected welfare fraud from April 2019 until April 2022.
The DWP spent £62.2million on fraud investigation in 2019/20, £16.6million in 2020/21 and £24.5million in 2021/22.
The cash went to pay salaries of the investigators as well as costs like training, overtime and travel.
Many investigators wear plain clothes and can show up at claimants' home or work at any time.
But the £103.3million figure is just a fraction of the cash DWP plans to throw at finding fraud in the future.
Over the next three years the department will spend £613million stopping fraud and errors in the benefits system.
DWP is creating a team of 2,000 who will go through 2million existing Universal Credit claims.
