The Assistant Director of Counter Fraud introduced and presented the report to the Committee.

·       Performance Update on Counter Fraud & Investigation contained a combined report of data from the first and second quarter of the year.

·       130 reports of suspected fraud in the first six months of this year.

·       43 investigations were closed as no fraud due to no evidence.

·       28 sanctions delivered in cases of proven fraud against individuals.

·       Resulting in potential saving to the Local Authority of just over £1 million in the first six months

Members asked the following questions to the Assistant Director of Counter Fraud:

·       Co-Optee Member Charles Clarke asked for an update on training work.

o   Training mechanism, will go out live throughout the Local Authority by January

·       Councillor Collins praised the department for their hard work and asked if more staff had been employed by the service.

o   Same number of staff but employed on fixed term contracts rather than agency staff.

·       Councillor Worrall was happy with the recovery of social homes and informed the committee it should be celebrated and reported to the Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee. Councillor Worrall sort an explanation of the process for right to buy applications.

o   Fraud reports to housing and forwards finding and figures. A new Coms strategy is being developed.

o   There are many ways people who are not entitled to a right to buy and all applications are reviewed by the fraud team.

·       Councillor Worrall noted fraud figures are not present on housing reports and asked if it is measured.

·       ACTION: Fraud Recovery Report for Housing O&S

·       Councillor Worrall asked regarding an investigation team that will work with social care teams to review applicants for direct payments, what are the team looking for and how it will be measured.

o   Direct payments are a high-risk area.

·       Councillor Collins what are the other sanctions, if any.

o   Formal warnings, formal cautions, housing tenants warning letters.

·       Councillor Thandi noted 10 social housing properties recovered and asked for the reasons why they were recovered.

o   Reasoning for recovering a property will be that the property is either abandoned by an individual, or it has been sublet.

o   Voluntary return

·       Councillor Worrall asked if housing benefit and council tax fraud fit within your team.

o   DWP for housing benefit

·       Co-Optee Member Charles Clarke asked if a report was coming subsequently with information relating to different type of fraud cases.

o   In end of year report.

·       Co-Optee Member Charles Clarke asked as the quarterly report doesn't give much detail on where recurrent fraud is.

o   Next year's end of year plan, members will see last year's and this year's figures.

o   Will include a chart comparing the rates of different crime types.

·       Councillor Thandi asked if cutbacks has affected the team.

o   New approach for this year, more focused internally.

RESOLVED:

1.1     The Audit Committee comments on the performance of the Counter Fraud & Investigation team.

1.2     The Audit Committee agrees to continue the Proactive Work Plan as found at Appendix 1.