Protecting the Public Purse:
Pressure on public finances is high than ever before. In September 2009 the Audit Commission released a report titled “Protecting the Public Purse”. This report considered the key areas of fraud risk that affect local government alongside identifying best practice. Increased efficiency in risk areas such as council tax and housing tenancy fraud are areas identified as “not adequately addresses”. As well as pressure on finances, an increased public need for services further deepens the requirements of local authorities to ensure that counter fraud plans are in place and implemented. Current figures detailed below were published in the report:
- Housing tenancy fraud could be tying up at least 50,000 council and housing association properties worth more than £2 billion, while queues for homes have increased by more than 50 per cent over the last six years. The number of people in need of social housing is predicted to rise to 2 million by 2011.
- Council taxpayers could be losing almost £2 million a week to fraudsters claiming a 25 per cent single person discount on their council tax.
National Fraud Authority:NFA was established as an Executive Agency of Attorney General Office in October 2008, to implement the Government's response to fraud, building on the 2006 Fraud Review prepared by the Office of Fair Trading. The strategic aims of the NFA are outlined in the National Fraud Strategy.
A key part of the NFA programme is engagement with stakeholders both public and private to gather intelligence to prevent fraud. In September 2009, an Information Sharing Task Force was launched, involving a range of public, private and third sector organisations, to widen access to data and make it easier to prevent fraud. The NFA has set up Regional Fraud Summit Workshops to ask organisations to identify “barriers they feel stop the flow of information into or out of their organisations, and any suggestions they may have to remove them”.
Housing Tenancy Fraud
Councils in England and Wales spend £154 billion yearly on delivering public services; recent calculations suggest that tax payers could be losing almost £2 million per week alone, to fraudsters who are claiming a single person’s discount on their Council Tax.
“Tackling Unlawful Subletting & Occupancy” was produced by the Chartered Institute of Housing in December 2009. The guidance is designed to support all social landlords across all sectors to understand the importance of tackling unlawful subletting. Additionally, it offers practical guidance on investigation and prevention of cases to ensure that action is effective. The differences between councils and housing partnerships approaches to tackling subletting fraud is acknowledged however the report highlights the importance of best practice examples and how these can be applied to ensure “effective partnership working to incentivise action”.