Issue - meetings

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Regeneration and Communities summarising the performance of the Benefit Fraud Team during 2012/13.  It was noted that:-

·  The primary role of the Team was the prevention and detection of Housing Benefit and Council Tax discount fraud and to work within the Anti-Fraud Strategies.

·  Referrals were received from various sources including data matching provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the National Fraud Initiative.  In 2012/13, 484 referrals were received for Maidstone and of these 320 were raised as investigations (not 230 as set out in the report).  The remainder were passed to the Compliance Officer for non-criminal informal action or to the DWP Counter Fraud Service for investigation.

·  The total monetary value of fraud found through the Team was £563,594.24.  The Team had also carried out an exercise with Capita Government Service, a private sector partner, in relation to Single Person discount and it was estimated that this would result in additional savings of £144,000.

·  The implementation of the provisions of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and the creation of the Single Fraud Investigation Service would impact on the Team.  The DWP would be responsible for the administration of Universal Credit and it was anticipated that the process for the transfer of the investigation of fraud function would commence in October.  A business case was being developed with a view to putting in place shared service arrangements to provide the resilience necessary to deliver a quality fraud investigation service in relation to the functions that would remain with the Council and to address the risks in new and emerging fraud such as discounts on empty homes.

In response to questions by Members, the Head of Revenues and Benefits Shared Service explained that in terms of trends in benefit fraud, the figures were similar year on year, but improvements in technology especially data matching meant that the Team could work with the DWP to detect fraud earlier.  With regard to tenancy fraud, the Team was working with Golding Homes as the prime provider to identify high risk cases.  It was too early to identify a trend following amendments to Council Tax legislation which removed certain empty property exemptions.  Additional Visiting Officers were being introduced to address the ongoing risk of fraud and it was considered that the resilience to move forward would be provided through the implementation of the business case.

RESOLVED:  That the performance of the Benefit Fraud Team during 2012/13 be noted.