02 June 2006
Detected fraud and overpayments among 1,300 public bodies has soared by 33% to £111m since the last sweep of their records two years ago, the Audit Commission revealed this week.
Chief executive Steve Bundred claimed the figure demonstrated the success of the fight against fraud, as he launched the results of the commission's latest National Fraud Initiative on May 30.
In its eight years of operation, the initiative has detected frauds worth more than £300m through matching data held by different public bodies.
NFI 2004/05 identified 2,497 overpayments to deceased pensioners worth £6.6m (a 20% increase) and more than 3,000 fraudulent claims for housing benefit.
As a result of its work, there were 396 successful prosecutions for housing benefit fraud, and 327 NHS employees and 2,690 local government employees were found to be claiming housing benefit fraudulently.
The detection of housing benefit fraud and overpayments rose by 29.4% to more than £22m. The NFI found 83 cases where fraud was suspected in right-to-buy applications and more might be confirmed soon.
Bundred issued a tough warning to would-be fraudsters that they would be caught and brought to justice.
He added that the increase in identified fraud was due to more public sector bodies being involved in the initiative, a widening of its scope and improved detection methods.
He added: 'I don't think anybody knows whether more frauds are being perpetrated but what we do know is we are better than ever before at identifying it and the people responsible.
'Our message is that if people are tempted to commit fraud against public bodies they will be found out – that might not always have been the case.'
He said the inclusion of areas not previously involved in the exercise had led to the increase in detection of housing benefit fraud – it now covers England, Wales, Scotland and some parts of Northern Ireland, as well as some housing associations.
The commission called for an improvement in the quality of data collected by public sector bodies in order to uncover more criminals.
'It is easier for public bodies to investigate if they have good quality information and we will continue to highlight this issue,' Bundred said.
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