By David Williams
27 October 2010
An Audit Commission report has praised councils for increasing their efforts to uncover fraud, but warned that they are still uncovering only the ‘tip of a huge iceberg’ of taxpayer cash lost to criminal activity.
The spending watchdog’s report, Protecting the public purse, was published today, and found that local government detected 119,000 cases of fraud, worth £135m, in 2009/10.
This included uncovering £99m of benefit fraud, and a further £21m in other scams such as abuse of ‘blue badge’ disabled parking permits.
The commission found that councils are ‘increasingly alert’ to false claims for single person council tax discount, blocking 48,000 fraudulent council tax discount claims during the last financial year. However, the £15m this saved amounts to only a quarter of the total that is believed to be lost annually.
Other common types of fraud include illegal sub-letting of council housing, and taking council jobs without a permit to work in the UK.
Audit Commission chair
Michael O’Higgins emphasised that fighting fraud has ‘never been more vital’ as
funding becomes increasingly tight for councils.
‘Fraud prevention and detection requires a concerted response by local authorities and their partners.
‘Good work is undoubtedly being done… but research indicates that even this is uncovering only the tip of a huge iceberg.’
David Sparks, vice chair of the Local Government Association, said councils were already working hard to clamp down on fraudsters. ‘Benefits are there to help the needy – not line the pockets of the greedy,’ he said.
‘The message is clear – try to con the system and you will end in court.’
Local government minister Bob Neill said: 'It is more important than ever that councils are getting value for taxpayers' money and rooting out waste.
'Local authorities need to continue working to clamp down on the fraudsters stealing from the public purse, improve detection, increase protections and recover losses.
'Alongside other measures the simple act of increasing transparency by putting all spending over £500 online will bring in an extra level of checks and balances and help to identify and eliminate fraud.'
