Benefit fraud inspectors to crack down on nine local authorities

Nine local authorities are to be examined in a fresh wave of probes by the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate.

Housing benefit minister Chris Pond said: “The public are fed up with cheats and we want to work with local authorities to cut down benefit fraud.”

The inspectorate will probe Gravesham Borough Council, South Buckinghamshire District Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council after weaknesses in their counter-fraud activities were identified in the Audit Commission’s recent comprehensive performance assessment reports.

A further four authorities are to be inspected after the CPA found their benefit administration as a whole to be “poor” or “fair”. They are: Castle Point Borough Council; South Northamptonshire District Council; Mansfield District Council and another, yet to be named.

Mid-Suffolk District Council and Flintshire County Council will also undergo inspection after being found to be slow in processing benefit claims. Their performance goes against the general trend of steady improvement in local authorities’ handling of benefit claims.

Quarterly figures from the Department for Work and Pensions last week revealed that the number of authorities that had cut the time taken to process new benefit claims had risen by 40%, from 103 to 146.

The nine inspections follow a government decision to publish housing benefit administration statistics in a bid to improve performance.

Meanwhile, poor housing benefit administration and weaknesses in counter-fraud measures have been identified in Benefit Fraud Inspectorate reports on four councils. Liverpool, Swindon and Teesdale councils were judged to be sub-standard in all seven of the categories used to assess housing benefit performance.

The London Borough of Enfield was rated “poor”. The report said Enfield had failed to ensure security was an integral part of the benefits system, increasing the risk of fraud.

A council spokeswoman said: “We have put in place a lot of the things the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate asked us to do. We’re confident we’re dealing with the issue of fraud now.”