The fraud rate for credit cards now stands at 13 in every 10,000 applications, the highest level since the period of April to June 2010.

A result is that fraud rates have been cut by more than half over the years.

Despite a fraud rate of just 1%, 500,000 people who rely on sickness benefits will be forced into the already depleted labour market.

DLA has one of the lowest fraud rates of any benefit - estimated under 1%.

Retailers have been encouraging customers to use credit and debit cards because the fraud rates are lower and the store is paid faster.

At Buynow.Com, a similar site offered by Cnet, the fraud rate hit 20 percent of sales earlier this year.

DLA has one of the lowest fraud rates of any benefits.

Since then, the company has revamped the way its Web site screens orders and improved fraud rates, but at a significant cost.

The fraud rates in France and Spain are, for example, considered 'suspiciously low'.