The UK’s Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) will spend £1.5 million trialing over-the-phone lie detector technology in an effort to reduce benefit fraud.

The department last year paid out £115 billion to 26 million people across the UK last year £0.7 billion of which was lost to fraud. The DWP hopes to use voice risk analysis (VRA) technology to flag suspect callers at the start of the claims process.

The DWP intends to conduct further trials of the technology after a round of pilots were found to be “positive and encouraging”.

VRA works by benchmarking a caller’s answers to initial questions such as name and date of birth, then measuring minute fluctuations known as ‘micro-tremors’, which can indicate a subject is under stress - similar to a polygraph or lie detector test.

Similar technology has been used by insurance agencies since 2002, including Admiral Insurance, typically in conjunction with an operator trained in questioning techniques.

Critics in the welfare and disability services have claimed the technology could put vulnerable applicants off applying for welfare payments they are entitled to, fearing that nervousness would pin them as suspicious. An American study in 2005 tested five different VRA devices and five different operators, and found them to be only 62% reliable.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat work and pensions shadow minister Danny Alexander demanded that detailed findings of the trials be published. The amount of taxpayers' money lost to benefit frauds is less than that lost to government waste, he argued.

But DWP anti-fraud minister James Plaskitt insisted that VRA could help reduce the burden on public coffers posed by benefit cheats.

"This technology is helping to combat benefit fraud," he said. "It is making it quicker and easier to review claims, especially for people who are genuinely entitled to benefits."

Further reading

Secrets and lies With success stories emerging from insurance, HR and security, should other business areas be investigating the application of lie detection systems?

The truth about biometrics The adoption of biometrics is at a tipping point after decades of failed trials and mistrust

Biometric diversity Introducing a host of innovations that use unusual human characteristics to confirm identity