Issue - meetings

The Shared Anti-Fraud Service (SAFS) Officer briefly introduced the report. Assurance work on the various COVID-19 grant schemes had made up a large part of the recent workload, as well as work resulting from the National Fraud Initiative, which was often administrative or related to data which was now outdated. After this work was completed, work to feed data into the fraud hub would be prioritised.

The SAFS Officer addressed several questions which were sent to him prior to the meeting by Members. In response to a question about response times to referrals, he said that there had been some slippage on the target set out in key performance indicator (KPI) three. However, considering the previous year’s average response times, he was confident this would be recovered to a two day average. In response to a question about the low number of proactive referrals, the SAFS Officer said that most of the referrals were resolved by administrative tasks and were therefore not passed on for fraud investigation.

Members were advised that SAFS had procured a number of services from external providers to constitute a four year framework. This would allow different local authorities to access a bespoke service suited to their needs. There had also been work done on ensuring long-term empty homes were still empty and therefore entitled to tax discounts. This work was funded by Hertfordshire County Council, with the various districts then responsible for ensuring data was accurate. Data analytics had been carried out using various systems including CIFAS and Spotlight to provide assurance over grant schemes, including working with other local authorities to share information about fraud. Only four attempts of fraud had been made against the Council and none had been successful, which Officers should be commended on.

The SAFS Officer responded to a prior question regarding the resumption of investigations using face-to-face interviews, which had been suspended during the pandemic. These interviews were now ongoing. However, work in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had yet to resume as DWP staff were still deployed elsewhere and had not been working on housing benefit fraud.

The SAFS Officer responded to a prior question regarding the cost of the Council’s membership to SAFS and a comparison of this against the savings and recovery of fraud losses. He assured Members that this subject was raised at regular meetings with Council staff, including the Head of Strategic Finance and Property. There had been considerable measurable financial savings, as well as soft prevention delivered by way of training, advice, anti-money laundering expertise and fraud awareness campaigns.

RESOLVED – that the report be considered and received.