Benefit fraud detection hits record levels

£140 million in fraud and overpayment has been detected by the Audit Commission as part of their National Fraud Initiative (NFI). 

The NFI is the country’s largest public sector anti-fraud programme. It is a computer based system which matched information such as housing benefit claims, pensions and social housing records from local councils, the NHS, Police and local probation offices.

The computer system offers a secure area to share and match information. For example, one tenant made a homeless application and was given a tenancy in Southwark. He had however also obtained another tenancy in the Borough using a different name, and had bought a property in Barking and Dagenham. The tenant was making further income by sub-letting the Southwark properties. The NFI process identified this and the tenancies were terminated.

Whilst the NFI is a valuable tool in detecting fraud, there are a number of simple barriers that Local Authorities can implement to prevent fraud altogether.

Identity checking can prevent the use of false or stolen identities, by verifying name, date of birth, nationality, passport numbers, driving license ID and NI number.

Using 192.com Business Services, Local Authorities can also check who is registered as living at an address, preventing multiple benefit applications within the same household.

Impersonation of the deceased is also a common means of benefit fraud; our identity checks can guard against this, checking the database of deceased individuals for any match.

The full Audit Commission report is available here.

21st May 2008

Success through Data Sharing

The NFI has proved that data sharing can be a valuable tool in the fight against fraud. For retailers, 192 offer a similar concept, specifically for online merchants. By sharing your fraud data with our secure system, you can pool resources with other online retailers, to ensure a robust defense against the fraudster. More information on Shared Fraud Data is available here.