Suspected council tax fraud investigations retrieve £1.9m in Herts says report

SPECIALIST council officers have retrieved £1.9m in the past year as a result of investigations into suspected council tax fraud in Hertfordshire.

The county’s ‘shared anti-fraud service’ investigates fraud against Hertfordshire’s county, district and borough councils.

And the success in highlighting council tax fraud is among data due to be presented to a meeting of the county council’s performance and resources cabinet panel, on Friday (December 1).

Overall, the report highlights 250 investigations undertaken by the county’s ‘shared anti-fraud service’ over the last 12 months

As well as highlighting £1.9m recovered following investigations into council tax fraud, it points to £0.7m identified as part of 20 investigations into social care payments.

It reports the detection of more than 100 instances of Blue Badge fraud and 20 instances of fraud in education, including school admissions.

In addition it reports that 31 properties were taken back by local authorities, following investigations into social housing fraud.

Details of the investigations are not included in the report to the cabinet panel.

But social housing fraud can include a tenant not living in the property as their main home, subletting without permission or taking over a tenancy after a tenant’s death, when not eligible.

It can also include the provision of false information when applying to purchase a property under Right to Buy or someone attempting to get social housing on false information.