uk-housing-benefit-claimants
uk-housing-benefit-claimants - organisation named in the AI Incident Database harm index.
What changed
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.
Timeline
PSF mapping
No PSF domains are mapped to this entity in the current public record.