Fraud investigators in Hertfordshire save public £2.6m in one year
Fraud investigators in Hertfordshire saved the public purse more than £2m last year – by analysing data to highlight wrongly claimed benefits, pensions and concessions.
The county’s Shared Anti Fraud Service’s FraudHub discovered 4,600 “errors and frauds” from data collected by county and district councils.
And that – according to a report presented to the latest meeting of the county councils audit committee – led to “savings through prevention” of £2.6m in 2023/24.
The ‘data-matching’ by the county’s Shared Anti Fraud Service’s FraudHub is highlighted in the Shared Anti Fraud Service’s annual report for Hertfordshire County Council.
And it is reported to build on the work of the National Fraud Initiative.
As part of that National Fraud Initiative (NFI), councils – and other bodies, such as the NHS – are required to submit data on areas such as payroll, pensions, creditor/payments, blue badges and concessions.
That data is analysed alongside further data from organisations – such as HMRC, DWP and the General Register Office – to identify discrepancies or fraud every two years.
And any discrepancies – the majority of which do not identify fraud, error or savings – are then highlighted with councils for review.
According to the report presented to audit committee, there were 32,000 ‘matches’ highlighted to the county council as part of the NFI in 2022/23.
This led to 13,000 reviews being conducted by council officers and the Shared Anti Fraud Service (SAFS).
And, in turn, this identified 1700 errors and frauds, “with reported loss/savings combined of £813k”.
According to the report presented to the audit committee, Hertfordshire’s FraudHub follows the same process as the government’s national exercise – but data is collected and matched more frequently throughout the year.
It is reported to have been developed by SAFS working with the Cabinet Office and the IT provider used for the National Fraud Initiative. And it can be used by all of SAFS partner organisations.
In addition to the county council, SAFS partners include Broxbourne, Hertsmere, Luton, North Herts, Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield councils.
The audit committee met on Tuesday 23 July. And the webcast of the meeting can be viewed on the council’s website.