Newcastle council has been hailed as a top performer after detecting £800,000 of benefit fraud.
The Audit Commission said the council's 14-strong specialist team had achieved a "fantastic result". It estimates that follow-up work on a fraud hotline saved £240,000.

In the last financial year, the council brought 22 prosecutions for housing benefit and council tax fraud.

The initiative is part of a national drive by the Audit Commission. It involves matching data from claims with NHS payroll figures, rent records and pension data. It has proved so successful that it has planned pilot schemes to detect fraud by private landlords as well.

Audit Commission-appointed auditor Peter Yetzes said: "We were impressed by Newcastle's methodical approach to selecting and investigating data matches, and this has brought it a fantastic result. For its size, detecting £800,000 in fraud puts it among the top performing councils."

Newcastle council cabinet member for housing Ruth Robson said: "This accolade is a testament to the excellent work of the council's dedicated investigators and proves we are giving the taxpayer value for money."

The report is good news for Newcastle, which last week was forced to admit four out of five of its 35,000 homes would not meet the government's 10-year target for bringing all social housing up to a decent standard.

Source

Housing Today