South Derbyshire District Council has £176,000 from the Government to help with its counter-fraud work. The money will cover two years of staffing and research costs as the council seeks to tackle council tax, business rates and housing fraud. The council’s bid, submitted alongside other authorities under the Derbyshire Joint Fraud Initiative (DJFI), was one of 52 successful ones from across the UK.
Ray Keech, client service manager at the district council and responsible for putting together the bid, said: “We were required to identify the sort of work we were going to do and state our anticipated results, as well as how much money we would need to do it. We will be focusing on people claiming council tax relief when they aren’t entitled to it, addressing those who get empty property relief when the properties are inhabited and sharing data about tenancy fraud with other organisations.”
District Council Leader Councillor Bob Wheeler said: “The fact we were one of around only 50 authorities across the country to secure the money was very pleasing. It’s quite a substantial amount for a relatively small district authority. It’s not only about getting tough on those who claim money they aren’t entitled to – it’s about bringing money in for the benefit of the residents of South Derbyshire.”
Types of council tax fraud include failing to register to pay, making a false application for a discount or exemption and failing to report a change of circumstances. Benefit fraud can mean a failure to declare work or income, not notifying the council that a partner lives at an address or falsified tenancies.
For a share of the £16 million fund, which opened last summer, councils had to demonstrate how their proposals will recoup money owed or tighten fraud safety nets. The Coalition Government claims official figures show councils are losing £2 billion a year to fraud and error.
The ‘counter-fraud fund‘ will give councils in England two years of support to tackle unnecessary losses from non-benefit related fraud, such as Council Tax fraud, blue badge fraud or theft of grants.
Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s annual conference last year, Eric Pickles said: “Fraud costs hardworking taxpayers £2 billion per year. We are supporting councils to go further in catching fraud felons … I am proud to commit £16 million over two years to ridding this scourge. This challenge fund will be allocated to the most innovative local authorities who plan to generate the most-effective savings.”
