Council fraud detection rates are at their highest in 25 years but progress could be undermined if local government cutbacks continue, a spending watchdog has warned.
The Audit Commission’s final report on fraud against England’s councils showed £180m worth was detected in the last year, 6% up on the previous year and a tenfold increase since 1990.
Its chair Jeremy Newman said the Commission’s annual Protecting the Public Purse reports had ‘helped local government foster greater transparency and accountability’ with local authorities developing ‘a real passion for fighting fraud’.
Councils have become far more effective at tackling housing tenancy fraud, the report found, with the number of social homes recovered almost doubling in the last five years. The report showed 39 councils had not detected a single case of non-benefit fraud, down from 88 the previous year.
Mr Newman warned these improvements were at risk if cutbacks continue to reduce councils’ capacity to deal with the issue.
‘I urge the Government to mandate the provision of fraud data from all local authorities, after the Commission’s closure, to ensure that future reports are able to provide as complete and authoritative a picture of fraud detection as Protecting the Public Purse,’ he said.
‘This would help preserve the high levels of transparency and accountability that English councils currently exhibit in their approach to countering fraud and prevent those councils that are not yet playing their part in the fight against fraud, from avoiding public scrutiny.’
Cllr Claire Kober, chair of the LGA’s resources board, said: ‘The transfer of responsibility for tackling benefit fraud to government’s new Single Fraud Investigation Service is likely to mean councils will have fewer resources with which to tackle other types of fraud.
‘While government has announced one-off funding to help local authorities in the short-term, this needs to be made permanent to ensure councils have adequate funding to carry out this important work in the years to come.’
