Fight against fraud continues

The Council's second annual Fraud Report, which summarises the work which has taken place to prevent and detect fraud and corruption, reveals that over £3.1 million in benefit overpayments were recovered by RBT, which administers the Housing Benefit Services.

Over 7,400 Housing and Council Tax Benefit overpayments were made during the last financial year and although most of these were not fraudulent, RBT obtained investigations in 898 suspicious cases and achieved 34 successful prosecutions. Sixty eight formal cautions and 80 administrative penalties were also issued.

Within the £3.1 million housing benefit that was recovered, the authority recharged Council Tax payers £898,000 for overpayments of Council Tax Benefits; claimed Government subsidies totalling £974,000 as a result of the Council's identification of overpayments.

In addition the authority identified savings of over £200,000 after investigations were led by Internal Audit. Generally these savings related to the Single Person Council Tax discount and false benefit claims.

Members of the authority's Audit Committee heard that although Rotherham does not have a culture of fraud, the worsening economic position could see an increase risk for the authority through fraud and corruption  and so it was important to continue to minimise the risk.

It heard that its Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy has resulted in a number of measures being implemented across the authority, such as surveys, training and reviewing the management of fraud arrangements.

The work is carried out by the council's Internal Audit Team and a Benefits Fraud Team, managed by RBT. These teams work closely with the Department of Work and Pensions particularly in its 'Living Together' fraud as well as with the Audit Commission's National Fraud Initiative.

Rotherham was one of ten local authorities who took part in the Living Together joint pilot exercise geared to identifying this particular kind of fraud by crossmatching credit references, which is now being rolled out nationally.

Cllr Ken Wyatt, Cabinet Member for Resources for the Council, said the authority is determined to prevent and eliminate fraud and corruption by using every means it can because one pound lost to fraud means one pound less for public services, which is absolutely crucial when the authority is having to tighten the purse strings.

He said: "With the current economic climate it is even more important that we maintain our guard against fraud because the behaviour of a small group of people will result in law-abiding citizens shouldering the losses that they can ill-afford. Tackling fraud makes it fair for all."