New advice from the DCLG - 10 simple ways to tackle council fraud

The Department for Communities and Local Government has recently published a new 10 point blueprint on tackling council fraud, based on findings in a report commissioned by the National Fraud Authority

In times of severe financial strain on the public sector, following this simple programme could help local governments save up to an estimated £2.1bn a year lost on fraud. These savings could help councils alleviate some of their financial pressure and focus energies instead on protecting their front line services.

Why preventing fraud matters

Council fraud affects local governments in a multitude of ways.  For example, it is estimated that in the UK approximately 400,000 people could be wrongly claiming for single person discount - a cost of £100m a year to councils in lost council tax revenue.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) recommends that councils follow their 10 point programme, and to specfically focus their fraud fighting efforts on housing tenancy, procurement, pay, pensions and recruitment, council tax, grants and blue badge schemes.

The DCLG’s top ten tips for tackling local authority fraud:

1. Measure exposure to fraud risk
2. More aggressively pursue a preventative strategy
3. Make better use of data analytics and credit reference agency checks to prevent fraud
4. Adopt tried and tested methods for tackling fraud in risk areas - such as blue badge scheme misuse
5. Follow best practice to drive down Housing Tenancy and Single Person Discount fraud
6. Pay particular attention to high risk areas such as procurement and grant awards
7. Work in partnership with service providers to tackle organised fraud across local services
8. Maintain specialist fraud investigative teams
9. Vet staff to a high standard to stop organised criminals infiltrating key departments
10. Implement national counter fraud standards developed by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy

To find out more and to read the DCLG’s full press release, please go onto http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/newsroom/1899161