AI tool helped recover £500m lost to fraud, government says
48 minutes ago Share Save Jack Fenwick Political correspondent Share Save
PA Media
A new artificial intelligence tool designed to crack down on fraud has helped the UK government recover almost £500m over the last year, the BBC can reveal. More than a third of the money clawed back related to fraudulent activity during the Covid-19 pandemic, with other cash being recouped from unlawful council tax claims and illegal subletting of social housing. The government will announce later that a new AI tool which has helped to identify the fraud will now be licensed to other countries, including the US and Australia. Civil liberties campaigners have previously criticised the Labour government for its use of AI in trying to counter fraud.
The Cabinet Office says the £480m recovered in the 12 months from April 2024 is the largest sum ever reclaimed by government anti-fraud teams in a single year. The savings have been made by cross-referencing information held by different government departments, as well as using a new AI tool. Ministers say the savings will now be used to recruit nurses, teachers and police officers. Of the total sum recovered, £186m was related to Covid fraud. Ministers have long vowed to claw back some of the money lost during the pandemic, but the £186m recouped is a fraction of the amount Labour has previously said was missing. Before last year's general election, the now-Chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed more than £7bn of public money was lost to fraud during the pandemic. These savings include the blocking of hundreds of thousands of companies with potentially fraudulent Bounce Back Loans from dissolving. Bounce Back Loans were loans of up to £50,000 set up by the government during the pandemic to support businesses. But the scheme has been criticised for not being diligent enough and effectively inviting fraud, as companies that dissolve before paying back the money often then do not need to repay anything. The Cabinet Office says one case it found involved a woman who invented a company and then sent the loan money to Poland.
Anti-fraud summit