Section: Benefits & Grants

Fraud & Error in Housing Benefit

The Department for Work and Pensions published a new report, providing details on the types and causes of fraud and error in Housing Benefit for the two year period April 2002 to March 2004.

The report gives a detailed analysis of the levels of Housing Benefit fraud and error in Great Britain, broken down by:

Claimant characteristics.
Local authority characteristics.
Components of Housing Benefit assessments that were incorrect.

The report's findings include:

Fraud and error related to income from earnings is estimated to have accounted for about a fifth of all overpaid expenditure.

Around a quarter of overpaid expenditure is due to local authority, DWP, or process error. Around nine tenths of this was caused by local authority mistakes or failure.

New Tax Credits (NTCs) replaced previous tax credits in April 2003. In the year 2003/04, fraud and error related to the existence or value of NTC income caused around a tenth of all overpaid Housing Benefit expenditure.

Non-residence is estimated to have accounted for around a quarter of all overpaid expenditure. Of this, around nine tenths involved claimant fraud or error. Only around one tenth was due to local authority or process error.

Claimants not in receipt of a passporting benefit were around four times more likely to be overpaid Housing Benefit than those that were.

Section: Benefits & Grants

Fraud & Error in Housing Benefit

Housing Monthly Diary

Reporting on May 2005

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