A technological revolution is quietly unfolding within Britain's welfare system, with artificial intelligence now being deployed by benefits claimants to maximise their state handouts, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal.
The AI Arms Race in Welfare Claims
Programmes such as OpenAI's ChatGPT are being widely used to generate answers and complete complex application forms for claimants. This technological assistance is contributing to a welfare budget which is predicted to hit £100 billion a year by 2030.
Across social media platforms and online forums, claimants are openly boasting about how AI has helped them secure benefits payments. One individual described a bot as her 'saviour' for 'doing the rest for you' after she instructed it to produce template forms. She advised others to 'thank me later' for this technological tip.
Communities have formed where users share the most effective 'prompts' for chatbots to produce better results across a range of different benefits. In a particularly sophisticated development, one user named 'Mr PIP Hero' has created his own specialised 'AI chatbot that fights for your PIP [Personal Independence Payment]' – which he claims is 'built to act like a KC in disability law'.
Organisations Embracing AI for Claim Support
The phenomenon extends beyond individual claimants. Disability Horizons, an online shop dedicated to helping 'enhance your life', has designed a tool for ChatGPT called the 'Personal Independence Payment form filler' that automatically completes applications.
The organisation claims their chatbot provides 'proactive suggestions' for forms and represents a 'stress-free way' to access benefits, specifically designed to 'increase your chances of success'. Online forums discussing AI usage for PIP payments are thriving, with users reporting 'extensive' uses to create 'accurate templates' carefully tailored to different medical conditions.
This surge in AI-assisted claiming comes as official statistics released last week showed more than 4 million people are receiving jobless benefits – the highest number ever recorded in British history.
DWP's Counter-Offensive with AI Verification
Meanwhile, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been fighting fire with fire by deploying its own AI tools to help streamline decisions and determine whether individuals are genuinely eligible for benefits.
The department has developed a 'risk-based verification' AI tool that assesses whether welfare applications are authentic. Government officials believe this system will help save £1.6 billion by 2030.
However, critics argue that the widespread use of AI by claimants could substantially undermine these projected savings. The situation has created a digital arms race between claimants using AI to strengthen their applications and government systems using AI to verify them.
Welfare assessments are currently conducted in person, by video link or over the phone, but the most recent figures show only 5 per cent are currently conducted face-to-face. Some experts suggest that returning to more frequent face-to-face sessions would make it more difficult for people to fake or exaggerate conditions compared to when using chatbots, but there is no indication this will happen, and the Government has resisted calls to enforce such a change.
