Universal Credit: Warnings over AI use to risk-score benefit claims

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Campaign groups say more transparency is needed to avoid potential bias over benefit investigations.

The government is being urged to share more details of its plans to boost the use of AI to risk-score benefit claims.

An estimated £8.3bn was overpaid in benefits this year, down from the year before but double the £4.1bn in the last year before the pandemic.Since last year, it has used an algorithm to flag potentially fraudulent claims for Universal Credit advances. These are interim payments for those in urgent need, which are then repaid monthly.

In its annual accounts last week, the DWP disclosed plans to pilot "similar" models to review cases in four areas with high overpayment rates, including undeclared earnings from self-employment and incorrect housing costs.The department says it continually monitors the algorithms to guard against the "inherent risk" of unintended bias, and says caseworkers are not told when cases have been flagged by the model.

It added that an outside body should be handed an oversight role, given the "well-documented serious risks to fundamental rights" from decisions informed by algorithms. In his statement on the accounts, he said the DWP had conceded that its ability to test for unfairness relating to protected characteristics - such as age, race and disability - was "currently limited".

 

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