What is Benefit Fraud?

Benefit fraud occurs when a person knowingly obtains public funds to which they have no entitlement to.

There are many circumstances which can result in a person obtaining benefit to which they are partly or wholly not entitled to. The most common reasons are:

  • Failing to declare paid employment
  • Failing to declare your full income
  • Failing to declare all your capital and savings
  • Failing to declare another adult living with you
  • Falsely obtaining benefit for a property you do not reside at
  • Obtaining benefit for a property you are not liable to pay rent for
  • Creating circumstances to deliberately abuse the benefit system
  • Providing false or misleading information about your circumstances.

People who deliberately fail to report a change in their circumstances are also committing benefit fraud, irrespective of whether they continue to be entitled to benefit or not.

What action does the Council take to prevent benefit fraud?

To prevent benefit fraud the Council rigorously applies the Verification framework. This framework was created by the Government and sets out the minimum standards of evidence needed to support a claim for Housing and Council Tax Benefit. This framework seeks to prevent fraud and error entering the benefits system at source.

To learn more about the Verification Framework please go to the “Verification Framework” section.

The next section will explain what action we take when benefit fraud has been reported to us.

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