Could a new tech-led approach really turn the tide against ever-more sophisticated scams? That question drove a government push last year that reclaimed an unprecedented sum from illicit schemes.
Fraud was the most common crime and cost the public dearly, with over £1.1 billion lost in 2024. Traditional methods struggled as automated, cross-border operations grew more complex.
The high-tech effort delivered roughly £480 million in savings and recoveries since April 2024, and a novel Fraud Risk Assessment Accelerator tool now scans policies for weakness before launch.
Results are about more than money; they eased pressure on public services and shifted work from reactive probes to preventative checks. Plans to license the tool to Five Eyes partners signal a global dimension to this strategy.
Key Takeaways
- Fraud was a major drain on public finances, prompting a modern response.
- Public sector teams recovered roughly £480 million from April 2024, a record sum.
- A new tool now checks policies for exploitable gaps before programmes start.
- Technology and data-led methods complemented traditional investigations.
- Licensing to Five Eyes partners shows international interest and shared standards.
Can AI Stop Fraud? See How £500m Was Recovered in the UK
In the year since April 2024, a concerted government drive delivered its biggest annual anti-fraud haul yet.
The Cabinet Office reported about £480 million safeguarded across twelve months from April 2024. This record crackdown cut across many programmes and changed how government departments spot misuse.
Record fraud crackdown: £480m-£500m recovered in the 12 months from April 2024
Over a third of those savings—roughly £186 million—related directly to pandemic-era schemes such as Bounce Back Loans. Hundreds of thousands of companies at risk of improper dissolution were blocked, protecting public money.
Where the savings came from: Covid-era Bounce Back Loans, council tax discounts and social housing subletting
Teams stopped more than 37,000 false council tax claims and removed over 2,600 ineligible people from housing lists. Preventing pension overpayments also saved tens of millions, freeing cash for nurses, teachers and police rather than lining pockets.
From Whitehall to the world: UK to licence its new anti-fraud AI to Five Eyes partners
The in-house Fraud Risk Assessment Accelerator underpinned these wins. Announced at a London summit by office minister and minister josh simons, the plan is to licence the tool to Five Eyes partners and scale secure collaboration.
For more details, see the BBC’s full coverage of this report.
The Technology: How UK Government AI Turned the Tide
A new generation of systems combined automated checks and human review to catch weaknesses before funds moved.
Inside the Fraud Risk Assessment Accelerator
The Cabinet Office built a tool that scans draft rules and new policies to flag exploitable gaps before launch. Early testing showed up to an 80% faster route to spotting risk, saving thousands of analyst hours and preventing potential losses.
Data-matching at scale with human oversight
Records across government departments were correlated to expose anomalies across loans, companies and benefit claims. Automated entity resolution and anomaly scoring highlighted leads, while specialist teams validated outputs to reduce bias and error.
Privacy-first collaboration with federated learning
Financial institutions explored federated learning to share model updates rather than raw customer data. This approach improved detection while protecting privacy and supported faster policy revisions after pandemic-era gaps were found.
Operational integration linked alerts into case management, letting investigators focus on the highest-risk events. Strong governance, audit trails and fairness checks were central to maintaining trust and delivering measurable savings over the year.
The Evolving Threat: AI vs AI and the Path Forward
Threat actors now run automated, generative campaigns that mimic real people and transactions. This escalation pushed rapid changes across public systems and spurred a coordinated response at a recent summit.
Fraud’s new frontier: increasingly sophisticated, AI-powered scams meet advanced public sector defences
Scams blend automation and synthetic identities to target loans, benefits and payments. Intelligence-driven tools now pair fast matching with human review to cut false positives.
Lessons from the pandemic showed that reactive checks left gaps; proactive policy scanning aims to stop organised groups taking public money into their pockets.
Collaboration and regulation: Five Eyes cooperation and the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan
The Cabinet Office and office minister aligned departments at the summit to share standards and playbooks. Licensing the Fraud Risk Assessment Accelerator to partners will accelerate cross-border detection.
| Actor | Purpose | Expected outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinet Office | Coordinate standards and data sharing | Faster joint responses |
| Five Eyes partners | Share model learnings | Improved detection of loans and mule networks |
| Regulators | Set testing and bias rules | Safer, fairer deployments |
Leadership from Minister Josh Simons and colleagues will turn summit commitments into operational moves. Collaborative defence — where systems face systems — will shape the next phase of public-sector work against fraud.
Conclusion: Can AI Stop Fraud? See How £500m Was Recovered in the UK
A year of targeted work brought measurable change to how public money is protected.
The cabinet office and government teams secured roughly £480 million since April 2024, with about £186 million tied to pandemic-era loans such as bounce back loans. Action on council tax discount claims and housing lists blocked hundreds of thousands of suspect company dissolutions and stopped thousands of improper claims.
The purpose-built tool helped move activity from reactive probes to earlier checks. People benefit when savings free budgets for frontline services, including police, and when genuine applicants face less friction. The effective use of artificial intelligence in these processes enhances efficiency and accuracy.
Governance, human oversight, and the AI Opportunities Action Plan will guide wider use of technology. Licensing to Five Eyes partners and privacy-first methods like federated learning should scale defences without exposing raw data.
Cautious optimism is warranted — sustained investment, clear rules, and cross-sector collaboration are needed to keep savings durable and protect public funds.
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