Fraud

Tackling Fraud

In East Devon, we know that most of our claimants are honest but we have a responsibility to tackle those who are not.

At the council, we have our own fraud investigation team that has responsibility for detecting fraudulent claims, for stopping or reducing payment in fraudulent cases and reclaiming overpayments on the discovery of the true facts.

Most of the team's workload comes from referrals by housing benefit and customer service officers. Some typical examples of benefit fraud are:

  • people who are working but do not declare this when they claim benefit;
  • people who claim as a single person, but actually live with a partner;
  • people who claim from an address but do not actually live there;
  • people who do not tell us the full amount of income, savings, pensions or capital when they claim benefit;
  • landlords who continue to get benefit paid directly to them after the claimant has left;
  • people who do not declare other adults living in the property;
  • people who deliberately and dishonestly do not tell us about a change in their circumstances which would reduce their benefit.

If you are doing any of these things, you are committing fraud.

If you know (or suspect) someone is committing benefit fraud, please let us know about it and we will investigate, in strictest confidence.

Joint working with the Benefits Agency

We work closely with the Benefits Agency. Many cases involve both housing/council tax benefit and social security benefits, particularly Income Support and income-based Job Seekers Allowance. This co-operation forms a very important part of our investigations and frequently produces positive results.

How can you help?

You can report a benefits cheat by calling our dedicated Fraud Hotline (01395) 517494 or send us an email to stopbenefitfraud@eastdevon.gov.uk. Please give us as much detail as possible. All information we receive is treated in the strictest confidence.

You can also phone the National Benefit Fraud Hotline, free of charge, on
0800 854 440 or text on 0800 328 0512.

Find out more about benefit fraud on the DWP website www.targetingbenefitfraud.gov.uk.