Issue - meetings

The Director of Finance and the Director of Local Services & Enforcement submit a joint report to provide the Committee with information on counter-fraud activities between 1 April 2015 and 30 September 2015. The Committee is recommended to note the report.

The Director of Finance and the Director of Local Services and Enforcement submitted a joint report providing the Committee with information on counter-fraud activities between 1 April 2015 and 30 September 2015.

Members noted that:-

·           Discussions were ongoing with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) regarding the transfer of benefit fraud staff from the Council to the Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS). The effective date of transfer was 1st March 2015;

·           Work was underway on developing and re-designing performance statistics for submission to this Committee.  These would be available by the end of the year, so would be included in reports at the appropriate time;

·           The new electronic case management system used by the Corporate Investigations team mirrored the one used to identify Benefit fraud and enabled data to be interrogated to a greater degree;

·           Overpayments of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit accounted for less than 1% of benefits expenditure by the Council;

·           Recovery of overpaid Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit was sought, with the Proceeds of Crime legislation being used where appropriate.  In this way, the Overpayments team recovered the majority of the benefits overpaid;

·           The amounts of overpaid Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit discussed in the report related to cases of proven fraud;

·           It was recognised that mistakes could be made, but the number of compensation payments made was very low in relation to the number of cases.  The amount of compensation paid was calculated on a sliding scale; and

·           A local version of the national Changing Circumstances campaign was being carried out, reminding those receiving benefits to tell the Council of any changes to their household circumstances.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.