Southampton City Council
Benefit fraud alone now costs the UK £1 billion a year, spiralling to nearly £3 billion when error is included. With ever tightening cuts on public spending, eliminating benefit fraud and error is one of the few measures available to local authorities to improve their limited funds.
Southampton City Council called on data management specialists, Data Discoveries to help them crack down on the number of people inappropriately claiming Single Person Discount housing benefit either falsely or in error.
A spokesperson from Southampton City Council said:
"Southampton, like most authorities, had the information to identify these problems, but cross referencing this benefits information is both complex and time consuming and we simply didn't have the resources to manually check the data."
David Aitken, Technical Director of Data Discoveries explained:
"Our specialist software allows us to quickly and efficiently analyse data. We took the 36,000 single person discount records that Southampton City Council provided and checked and cross-checked the records then categorised them for action on a "traffic-light" basis. Green indicates that a claim is almost certainly inappropriate, whether through fraud or genuine error, and should be challenged with confidence. Amber shows a medium risk and red means that there is an inconsistency that should be questioned."
The team highlighted 6000 suspect cases as a result of using its bespoke software and expert knowledge. Of those identified suspect cases, 80% of the people corrected their discount applications on the first written request for an update in their circumstances. This produced a staggering £500,000 in discount application reversals.
A spokesperson from Southampton City Council added:
"Not only did the exercise deliver £500,000 of additional income to the council that can be put back into the delivery of public services and amenities, it was all achieved with minimal staff effort and much lower dispute time and costs than we expected."
It is estimated that up to 300,000 people may have falsely claimed Single Person Discount. The National Fraud Authority recommends that all public sector organisations should place greater emphasis on the prevention of fraud, before providing a service or making payment, rather than the resources they place against detection, investigation and prosecution after a fraud has occurred.
David Aitken from Data Discoveries said:
"People falsely claiming Single Person Discount costs genuine council tax payers an extra £5 on to their bill each year and can cost local authorities up to £100 million a year. It's imperative that other councils follow Southampton City Council's lead to take these preventative measures to protect the public purse."
Contact Ken Naismith on 0131 555 1100 or info(at)datadiscoveries(dot)com for more information or to request our white paper 'Key Weapon Against Benefit Fraud & Error'.