Staffordshire and Cheshire residents may be on the wrong benefits or not claiming what they're entitled to
It's revealed £8.2 billion was overpaid to people in the country this year- but over 200,000 pensioners didn't get their benefits
There's worries pensioners in Staffordshire and Cheshire are not claiming the benefits their entitled to - while others groups are getting more than they're owed.
This comes as its revealed £8.2 billion was overpaid to people in the country this financial year, but over 200,000 pensioners didn't get their benefits.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the level of fraud and error in benefit spending "remains unacceptably high."
On pension underpayments, PAC chair Dame Meg Hillier accused the Government department of being "asleep at the switch", with people being left short of what they are owed.
The level of fraud and error in benefits in 2022-23 is down on the previous year's £8.6 billion, the committee said, but it described this as only a slight fall and compared it with the much lower figure of £4.4 billion in 2019-20 before the pandemic.
Jude Hawes from Citizen's Advice Staffordshire North said:
"It is undoubtedly true that organised criminal gangs are defrauding the benefit system - these numbers are not mainly made out of claimants getting a bit too much.
"The online nature makes this much more possible.
"If you had to turn up at an office face-to-face with somebody and your child and your evidence - it is much more difficult to commit fraud.
"In Stoke, because we have much lower levels of literacy and digital access and skills - our population are really put at a disadvantage on this.
"People are failing to pass on information, passing it on incorrectly, not understanding what it is they are meant to tell people, therefore making a mistake and either getting too much benefit or not enough benefit."