Home office crackdown on fraudsters helps Kensington and Chelsea unearth twice as many cheats as before

By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter

A nationwide initiative to track down fraudsters had led to a doubling of cases in Kensington and Chelsea, according to the council.

It says the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) run by the Cabinet Office has resulted in 719 matches since it launched in 2022 and unlocked 126 investigations worth more than £360k.

The council cross-checked its databases against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) deceased records to find 122 instances of people incorrectly or fraudulently listed on the housing register or issued parking permits. There were also six instances of people receiving a council pension who were listed on DWP’s deceased records.

According to the report by the council’s Corporate Anti-Fraud Service (CAFS), 50 cases are still under investigation. It comes as Kensington and Chelsea council said it uncovered a notional value of £1.7m worth of fraud during the 2023/24 financial year.

That figure represents just 307 of the more than 1,200 cases officers closed during the financial year which resulted in the prevention or detection of fraud. The council said calculating notional values is essential for measuring the financial advantages of anti-fraud work and underlining the importance of tackling it.

It added that not all aspects of fraud can be accurately measured in monetary terms and that figures represent a mixture of loss and savings uncovered through investigations. A 42per cent jump in social housing fraud from last financial year set the local authority back a total of £800k, it has been estimated.

Between April 1, last year, and March 31 this year, the council recovered 50 misused properties. This consisted of 38 council properties, five temporary accommodation flats, and seven local housing association addresses.

The most common forms of housing fraud or errors were subletting, succession issues and abandonments.

The CAPS team also uncovered five instances of fraud connected to the Grenfell Tower fire worth £224k. Councillors were also told during a meeting last Tuesday that fraud numbers had been risen sharply thanks to the NFI.

The number of NFI matches skyrocketed from eight in the 2022/23 financial year to 118 in last year. The total number of proven cases, which includes investigations outside those initiated by the NFI, increased from 153 to 307, according to the council report.

The NFI is an electronic data-matching exercise coordinated by the Cabinet Office of over 1,200 public and private sector organisations. Since 1 April last year, CAFS has expanded to assist HR in handling complex misconduct cases involving potential fraud and validating the legitimacy of transactions on council cards and medical certificates.

Probes this year have covered areas such as school cheque fraud, unfounded claims related to Special Education Needs Transport, and issues concerning business rates. Council employee fraud also featured in the report.

Investigators found one employee had used a council card to purchase designer trainers and tried to claim it as business wear. They also used a council car for personal journeys and were later dismissed for gross misconduct.

A full-time quantity surveyor was also dismissed after analysis of payroll data found they has been simultaneously employed by the NHS. Another quit after being busted for working for Southwark council.

Not all investigations resulted in wrongdoing being found, an official told councillors, adding it was not uncommon for employees facing disciplinary proceedings to report fraud which could not be proved.

He said: “One of the problems, and this is horrible, is that individuals blow the whistle once they’ve backed themselves in a corner, perhaps because of a disciplinary matter and that sometimes is more vexatious because they then think they’re protected by giving us information that will help. Because of the protections from whistle blowing, people are misusing it.”

Picture: Pixabay/Jonathan Wilkins