In the nine months to December, Croydon has reported identifying fraud of £1.3m, over twice the cost of running the fraud unit for a full year. Some £320,000 wasn't related to benefit fraud, and was mainly related to renovation and empty property grants.
We can see how fraud cases hitting the media are only the tip of the iceberg. There were six administration penalties, and as many as 55 cautions were offered, but successful prosecutions totalled 18.
They report identified overpayments and savings: housing benefir £414k, JSA & IS £436k, and council tax benefit £69k.
On single person benefit the team "has undertaken to examine the two thousand highest risk cases that are also in receipt of housing benefit". So far the single person discount has been removed from 48 people.
What we're not told, though, is how these relate to the council's totals. But the report's worth a read.
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