Benefit frauds again

Many benefit claims start legitimately but people do not tell their local council when they return to work, so payment of the benefits continues.

Thus a Leebrooks woman kept claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit despite getting a job at McDonalds and overclaimed £5,000.

A Widnes woman fraudulently claimed £2,607.34 in housing and council tax benefits despite returning to work.

A Watford woman's claims began legitimately but then she didn't tell Three Rivers District Council she had got a job, resulting in a £1,800 overpayment in housing benefit.

Today's most interesting case concerns an Isleworth man, even though the fraudulently claimed benefit amounted to only £655.70.

Suspicions about Day were raised when Hounslow Council's fraud investigation unit received information from the National Fraud Initiative, a data-matching system holding details of benefit claimants nationwide.

It showed that Day had failed to notify Hounslow Council he was working.

His jobseekers' allowance had ended, but he had continued receiving housing benefit.

One can absolutely understand councils wanting to police their own benefit applicants - after all, the money comes out of their budgets - but it makes this national reconciliation of the different databases all the more important.