AI use widened to assess universal credit applications and tackle fraud

Department of Work and Pensions warned by auditor general about potential bias in algorithms

The government has widened its deployment of artificial intelligence to uncover welfare fraud, despite warnings of algorithmic bias against groups of vulnerable claimants.

In a 70m investment applying advanced analytics" to requests for universal credit (UC), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has extended the use of machine learning as it attempts to save more than 1bn from the 8bn-plus lost to fraud and error last year, audit documents scrutinised by the Guardian reveal.