The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published its new strategy for tackling benefit fraud - Reducing Fraud in the Benefit System - described as "a crackdown on benefit fraud, using 21st century techniques to beat criminals."
The strategy will see the DWP using data matching with credit reference agencies for the first time. This will enable the DWP to check what claimants declare about their financial situation against what they tell others. It is estimated that £40 million in taxes a year may be saved through the earlier detection of living together fraud, which traditionally has been hard to detect.
The new measures for the early detection of fraudsters include cutting edge private sector techniques, such as the use of voice stress analysis in telephone claims, to identify suspect cases at the outset.
Changes in the way investigators are organised will see them better equipped to identify high-risk groups, using analyses of past claims and the profiling of previous incidents of fraud. This will, for example, facilitate the detection of those who deliberately fail to declare a change in their circumstances.
New radio adverts, introduced in November, warn benefit cheats of a different kind of fraud investigator. They warn listeners that these investigators work relentlessly, never take a day off and don't even sleep. They describe powerful computer systems that help identify fraudsters through the continuous cross-referencing of information across government departments.
The 40 second clips mark a step up in the DWP campaign, which has already helped cut fraud in Income Support and Jobseekers Allowance by half since 1998. Anti-Fraud Minister James Plaskitt said:
Robocop was Hollywood fiction, but using technology to catch benefit cheats is now a fact. We are uncovering fraud earlier, and in the last year 53 million pounds of taxpayer's money was recovered in this way.
The campaign is also about deterring potential fraudsters with the warning - you may not hear them, but our computers will find you.
From next December, families in England needing to adapt their homes to care for a disabled child will no longer be subject to means testing.
The Government's decision to scrap the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) means test makes it easier for families to apply for a DFG, for help with funding to install access ramps, stair lifts, level access showers, and home extensions. The change ensures families are entitled to apply for the maximum available grant of £25,000, for disability improvements to their home, without having to go through a means test. Housing Minister Baroness Andrews said:
The current DFG means test prevented some families from getting the help they needed, in what were often difficult and distressing circumstances.
The ending of the means test is an important change which will be warmly welcomed by all those who have been pressing for a change.
But there is no doubt the Disabled Facilities Grant has been very successful. Since 1997, more than 250,000 disabled people have been helped by grants that can be used for a range of housing adaptations needed to ensure a disabled occupant can remain living an independent life at home.
The Government's Review of the Disabled Facilities Grant will continue, following the publication of the independent Bristol University report into the operation of the programme. This report recommended the above change, which is now being implemented. Its other recommendations will be considered further, with a consultation paper being issued during the early part of 2006 setting out any additional proposals for change.
It was revealed by the DWP that only 53 local authorities allocated in full the amount set aside for them to make discretionary housing payments in the year 2003/04. Whilst £20 million was made available for discretionary payments, only about £14 million was allocated.
Discretionary payments are intended to meet housing costs on top of any mainstream benefit paid. Under spends are returned to the DWP.
New research, in the nine pathfinder areas piloting the new local housing allowance, shows that a growing number of private sector landlords, in those areas, are declining to offer housing to applicants dependent on Housing Benefit.
The research also suggests, as reported by Shelter, that some private sector landlords are requiring prospective tenants to arrange for rent to be sent to the landlord, as a condition of the tenancy.