12 - (04) 2024 10 31 CFT mid-year update 2024-25
North Ayrshire Council · 31 October 2024
Back to Audit and Scrutiny Committee — 31 October 2024 and its agenda
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NORTH AYRSHIRE COUNCIL 31 October 2024 Audit and Scrutiny Committee Title: Corporate Fraud Team update report Purpose: To provide the Audit and Scrutiny Committee with an update report on the work of the Corporate Fraud Team between April and September 2024. Recommendation: That the Committee notes the work carried out by the Corporate Fraud Team. 1. Executive Summary 1.1 The Corporate Fraud Team provides the Council with the capacity to investigate fraud both within and against the organisation. 1.2 Committee receives bi-annual updates on the work of the team. This report provides an overview of the activity of the team between April and September 2024. 2. Background Referrals 2.1 Referrals for investigation have been made to the team from a number of different sources, including Revenues and Benefits and Housing, members of the public and other agencies and local authorities. The publicity used by the team, including posters and leaflets, advertising on Council vans and contact information on the Council website, continues to be successful in generating a stream of referrals. 2.2 Investigations have been carried out across a range of areas including employee- related matters as well as Council Tax, Discretionary Housing Payments, Scottish Welfare Fund, Blue Badges and Housing tenancy issues. Although responsibility for investigating Housing Benefit fraud now lies with the DWP Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS), issues may be identified by the Corporate Fraud Team which can result in changes being made to benefits in payment. Joint working arrangements are in place with the DWP for cases where there are suspected frauds relating to both DWP benefits and Council Tax Reduction. 2.3 The team investigates all tenancy abandonments which are referred by Housing. While Housing focus on recovering the tenancy, the Corporate Fraud Team can add value by locating the missing tenant, which can often lead to changes to benefits or
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discounts in payment elsewhere, as well as enabling Housing to recover costs associated with house clearances and cleaning. 2.4 Employee-related investigations are the subject of a separate report to the appropriate Service and the findings are also reported to the Audit and Scrutiny Committee as each investigation is finalised. Financial outcomes for April to September 2024 2.5 The team received 162 referrals for investigation during the first half of 2024/25 (2023/24: 181 referrals). Analysis of these referrals shows that 109 referrals were received from internal sources, and 53 from external sources. 2.6 The team investigates 100% of referrals made. During the period, 191 cases were closed (2023/24: 193 cases). These can be categorised as follows: Category Number of Cases Closed with no issues identified 88 Referred to another agency (including SFIS) or Council Service for investigation 48 Closed with results achieved (fraud, error or other recovery/action) 55 TOTAL 191 2.7 Fraud and error totalling £0.037m were identified and are categorised in the table below: Category Value (£000) Housing Benefit 0 Council Tax (including CTR, Single Person Discount and other recoveries) 24 Housing 4 Other (including employee investigations) 9 TOTAL 37 Non-financial outcomes for April to September 2024 2.8 In addition to the financial outcomes noted above, other outcomes/benefits were noted as follows: • Thirty tenancies were recovered by Housing with some assistance from the Corporate Fraud Team; • Nine warning letters were issued for blue badge misuse, with a further badge being recovered for misuse. • Three employee investigations have been undertaken which have resulted in reports with actions and of those, two included conduct / disciplinary issues. • Six corrections and updates to records have been made to ensure record keeping is up to date.
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International Fraud Awareness Week 2.9 International Fraud Awareness Week (IFAW) takes place from 17 – 23 November 2024. This year awareness will be through the promotion and sharing of fraud related social media posts, from across the UK public sector. National Fraud Initiative (NFI) 2.10 The NFI is a long-established exercise which takes place across the UK every two years and involves the matching of relevant datasets across public bodies to identify possible fraud or error for further investigation. 2.11 The Corporate Fraud Team coordinates the exercise for the Council and the 2024/25 National Exercise is now underway. Data sets for the exercise require to be submitted to the Cabinet Office between 1st and 25th October. When all data sets are received they will be quality checked, matched and reports containing matches will be released to participating organisations for investigation. It is expected that match reports will start being released in December 2024. The investigation of match reports is carried out by relevant Services, co-ordinated by the Key Contact, and participants will have until 31st March 2026 to complete this piece of work. 2.12 Progress updates will be provided at future Audit and Scrutiny Committee meetings, with the final outcomes being reported by Audit Scotland in Summer 2026. 3. Proposals 3.1 It is proposed that the Committee notes the work carried out by the Corporate Fraud Team. 4. Implications/Socio-economic Duty Financial 4.1 None. Human Resources 4.2 None. Legal 4.3 None. Equality/Socio-economic 4.4 None. Climate Change and Carbon 4.5 None.
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Key Priorities 4.6 The work of the Corporate Fraud Team helps to support the efficient delivery of the strategic priorities within the Council Plan 2023-2028. Community Wealth Building 4.7 None. 5. Consultation 5.1 No consultation has been required in the preparation of this report. Mark Boyd Head of Service (Finance) For further information please contact John McCallum, Senior Manager (Audit, Fraud, Safety, Risk & Insurance), on 01294 324607. Background Papers None