Housing and Council Tax Benefit Fraud

Housing and Council Tax Benefit Fraud

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are public funds and Welwyn Hatfield takes seriously its responsibility to both safeguard these funds and make sure the right people get the benefit to which they are entitled.

We have a trained team of investigation officers dedicated to stopping those people who obtain benefit by fraudulent means.

We are determined to:

• investigate efficiently
• prosecute offenders where appropriate
• prevent and detect fraud
• stop or reduce payment in fraudulent cases 

So what is considered Benefit Fraud?

Some examples are:

• failure to declare work
• not declaring the full amount of income, savings or capital
• failing to declare ownership of another property for which rent is being received
• false claims by homeowners – inventing ficticious landlords
• not declaring that there are other people, usually with income or savings, living in the property
• non-residence – claiming to live somewhere whilst subletting it and living elsewhere
• failing to declare change of address – failing to declare a  move while continuing to accept payments of Housing Benefit for a previous address
• landlord fraud – for example continuing to receive payment for a property that the claimant has vacated

Fraudulent over-payments

An overpayment may be treated as fraudulent when Welwyn Hatfield Council can establish that, on the balance of probabilities, there has been either:

• a breach of Section 111A, 112(1) or 112(1A) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 or
• there has been a failure to report a relevant change of circumstances, contrary to the requirements of Regulation 75 of the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987,
• or Regulation 65 of the Council Tax Benefit (General) Regulations 1992

How you can help stop Benefit Fraud

If you think someone is committing benefit fraud it is important that you let us know. Please provide as much information as you can about the person and why you think they are committing benefit fraud. The more information you give the better. Providing extra information may be the difference between prosecuting a benefit fraudster and not being able to prove the offence. The law says that we must have good reason to investigate a person and we need to target our resources towards cases that we have a good chance of proving

What we do with the information you give us

We look at every report we receive.

However, investigations can take some time and it should not be obvious to the person concerned that they are under investigation. The Data Protection Laws say we have to keep information about people confidential, so we cannot give progress reports to the person who reported the possible fraud.
 
When we receive a report of benefit fraud we will check the person's benefit claim to confirm whether they have declared the information given. If not, the investigation team will gather information to support the allegation, for example, from employers, banks and building societies. We will then try to establish the facts and take further action if appropriate.

If we can prove that a person has committed benefit fraud we will always do everything in our power to recover the amount of benefit they have received fraudulently. Depending on the circumstances we can also:

• prosecute
• issue a formal caution
• issue an administration penalty

How you can tell us about a suspected Benefit Fraud

• You can telephone the fraud hotline number on 01707 357606.

This is a free telephone number. You do not have to give your name if you do not wish, just the details of the suspected fraud. The information you give will be treated confidentially and investigated fully.

• You can contact the Benefit Office and ask to speak to an Investigations Officer.