Entities
UK general public
Incidents Harmed By
Incident 7385 Report
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Algorithm Wrongly Flags 200,000 for Housing Benefit Fraud
2024-06-23
A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) algorithm wrongly flagged over 200,000 UK housing benefit claims as high risk, resulting in unnecessary investigations. Two-thirds of these flagged claims were legitimate, causing wasted public funds and stress for claimants. Despite initial success in a pilot, the algorithm's real-world performance fell short. This incident highlights the risks of overreliance on automated systems in welfare administration.
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Related Entities
Other entities that are related to the same incident. For example, if the developer of an incident is this entity but the deployer is another entity, they are marked as related entities.