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South Lakeland District Council

Tel: 0845 050 4434
info@southlakeland.gov.uk
South Lakeland House
Lowther Street
Kendal
Cumbria LA9 4DQ

Ulverston Local Link

Tel: 0845 050 4434
info@southlakeland.gov.uk
Town Hall
Ulverston
Cumbria
LA12 7AR

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What is Benefit Fraud?

SLDC is responsible for the administration and provision of Housing and Council Tax Benefit throughout the District. These benefits are means tested. This means that they are calculated using information provided by a person about their income, savings and investments. Persons in receipt of certain state benefits such as Income Support are also automatically entitled to Housing and Council Tax Benefit.

Benefit fraud occurs where a person knowingly or dishonestly provides information that they know to be false when they claim benefits, or when a person knowingly or dishonestly fails to notify changes in their circumstances that will affect entitlement to benefits they are receiving. In other words when a person attempts to claim and/or receiving benefits they know they are not entitled to.

How am I affected by benefit fraud and why should I take an interest?

To put it simply, Benefit Fraud is a crime that affects us all. Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are benefits that are funded by a combination of Government Grants and Council Tax, so they are funded by taxes we all pay. Recent estimates of losses to the public purse for benefit fraud, which includes Housing and Council Tax Benefit and Department of Work and Pensions benefits such Jobseekers Allowance and Income Support are in the region of £2 Billion per year. That's £80 for every family in the UK.

Why does SLDC investigate benefit fraud

The Council has the duty by law to administer a benefits service to those within its area who qualify. We also have a responsibility to ensure that payments are made only to those who are actually entitled to receive them.

For that reason, we have our own Fraud and Verification Team whose duties include:

Ensuring benefits are paid correctly
Detecting fraudulent claims
Stopping and reducing payment in fraudulent cases
Taking action against offenders

What Types of Fraud are there?

This list is not exhaustive, but does give a guide to the types of fraud that occur.

Types of Benefit Fraud
FRAUD	DESCRIPTION
Working and Claiming	Working and claiming fraud usually involves claimants who are in receipt of Housing Benefit / Council Tax Benefit on the basis of entitlement to Job Seekers Allowance / Income Support, but who are in fact working. Any cases that arise in these circumstances will usually involve a joint investigation involving the Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.
Non-disclosure of property / capital	This fraud is where a claimant fails to declare either savings / capital or the ownership of another property / land elsewhere.
Non-disclosure of income	This is where the claimant fails to declare all of their income, knowing or intending that non-declaration will increase their benefit award. (e.g. a private pension).
Non-disclosure of partner (living together as husband and wife)	This involves a claimant failing to declare the presence of a partner who is working, knowing or intending that this would affect their entitlement.
Non-declaration of non-dependants and/or sub-tenants	It is fraudulent if a claimant fails to declare the presence of other adults living in the property, in order to preserve or increase entitlement to benefit.
False claims by homeowners	This is where the owner of a property falsely states that he or she is paying rent to occupy what is in fact, his or her own property.
Failing to declare change of address	Where a claimant fails to declare that he / she has moved, but continues to accept payments of Housing Benefit for their previous address, they are committing a fraud.
False address fraud	This fraud may occur where a person is claiming for an address at which he or she is not in fact living. This type of offence may occur with the collusion of the landlord or other tenants.
Landlord fraud	This is where a landlord continues to receive benefit paid directly to him / her for a period after which he / she is aware the claimant vacated the premises. Where the landlord has access to more than one property, there is the potential to move tenants around without informing the Local Authority. There are many ways other ways in which landlords and managing agents can defraud the benefit system, particularly in areas where there is a large proportion of multiple occupation houses and there are many seasonal workers looking for short-term lets.

Who commits benefit fraud

Benefit fraud can be committed by anyone from an opportunist fraudster who doesn't notify a change of job to highly organised gangs systematically ripping off the benefits system. There are no stereotypes when it comes to claiming benefit fraudulently.

What happens to fraudsters who get caught

The Council has a Sanction Policy which is referred to when and if it can be proved that someone has been claiming fraudulently. There are a number of sanctions available including prosecution in the more serious cases.

Any person who makes a false statement or produces a false document in order to obtain benefit is committing a criminal offence that is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Any person who fails to notify a change in circumstances in order to continue to receive benefit is committing a criminal offence that is punishable by up to 7 years in prison.

During 2009 – 2010 SLDC fraud investigators identified over 80 cases where claims had been made fraudulently and of these 7 fraudsters were successfully prosecuted, 20 fraudsters accepted Formal Cautions and 14 fraudsters accepted an Adpen as an alternative to prosecution.

Offences included:

a number of cases where customers failed to declare either receipt of, or changes to Tax Credits
a lady who didn’t report rental income she received from a property she owned in Cheshire, or the fact that she owned the property at all
40 cases where either new jobs or changes in wages hadn’t been reported
a number of cases where single claimants had failed to report they had a partner living with them, including a lady who failed to report that she had married
a number of cases where capital wasn’t reported correctly, including a lady who failed to report that she owned property in the north of England and Spain and who also failed to report that she was working.