Fraud team's crackdown saves taxpayers millions
![A small wooden home and a set of keys sat on top of a piece of paper which shows a table with lots of figures on. Beside them, there is a calculator](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/2048/cpsprodpb/1ff4/live/4de1eb20-4aa7-11ef-9d7d-8f2c8d9c3d2a.jpg)
The figure includes the prevention of fraudulent benefit applications
- Published
Taxpayers have been saved about £3m over two years by council investigators "preventing fraud and identifying those who should be paying more".
Swindon Borough Council's head of internal audit, Nick Hobbs, confirmed the new figures at a meeting on Tuesday.
Council officials stopped 12 illegitimate right-to-buy applications, which saved £1.03m. They also halted seven fraudulent housing applications.
Councillor Neil Hopkins said: "The work is of great importance and it is bringing in great results.”
Billable income
The recovery of eight houses in 2023 to 2024 from fraudulent tenants saved £744,000, the audit committee was told.
Debt recovery brought in £4,000, and the prevention of fraudulent applications for housing benefit, council tax reductions, and student exemptions saved £16,000.
About £1.83m was saved last year, compared to £1.5m in the previous financial year of 2022 to 2023.
Mr Hobbs added: "An exercise was carried out through the National Fraud Initiative where Council Tax Single Person discount was matched to electoral roll and credit agencies.
“This identified an additional billable income of £272,723, and work on empty homes identified 219 properties to be occupied, resulting in an additional £452,235 in empty homes bonus."
The overall figure for savings and additional billable income for 2024 to 2025 was £2,559,525, he added.
The council have managed to save money by recovering houses from fraudulent tenants
Councillor Matt Lodge asked whether these figures suggested a case for recruiting one more investigator, adding "the money and savings would outweigh the extra costs".
Mr Hobbs said: "Before two years ago, maybe you get a big win, but then you’ve picked off most of them when you repeat the exercise. So it’s hard to say what we would identify in future years."
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