Agenda item

The SAFS Manager introduced the report which provided details of the work undertaken by SAFS to protect the Council against the threat of fraud and deliver the Anti-Fraud Action Plan for 2023/24.

The SAFS Manager said the objective was set for SAFS to deliver two hundred and eight five days of work for the Council, and that two hundred and eleven days (which was seventy four percent of this number) had been recorded against this. He said that this target had not been met due to a new case management system being unable to correctly record time during the first half of the year. He said that this functionality had since been corrected and the recording of time in the second half of the year was at the expected level. 

The SAFS Manager said that SAFS were unable to report on Key Performance Indicator (KPI) three as the new case management system could not be configured as hoped. He reiterated that again this was not to say that the response was not being met, just that a complete data set could not be provided.

The SAFS Manager said that the number of cases being referred to SAFS had increased slightly over the last year, which followed a consistent increasing trend. He said that an explanation of ‘failed referrals’ was provided within the report, with it important to understand the reasons as to why these cases were not pursued further.  

The SAFS Manager said that forty-eight low risk cases were identified last year, which had been dealt with by way of a compliance approach. This approach resulted in the identification of forty-two thousand pounds of Council Tax and Housing Benefit fraud.  He said that were it not appropriate to bring a criminal prosecution, fifteen financial sanctions were issued, totalling one thousand and fifty pounds.

The SAFS Manager said that of the cases closed in the past financial year, sixty-one thousand pounds of recoverable loses and savings were identified. He said that closures in the year had reduced, which was in part due to the move to a compliance. 

The SAFS Manager said that the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) and the Fraud Hub were both fraud and error detection opportunities as well as an opportunity to reduce ongoing losses. He said that the NFI was a biannual process, due to commence again in the Autumn and that the Fraud Hub was a rolling three-month programme managed by SAFS to capture fraud earlier. 

The SAFS Manager said that data matching was also used to analyse National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR), which had seen additional and new revenue of sixty-three thousand pounds for East Herts Council in this area.

The Senior Fraud Investigator drew Members attention to page 26 of the report, which detailed fraud awareness and prevention. This detailed culture, controls and mitigations and fraud reporting methods. He confirmed that the Council’s website had links for the public to report by email, telephone and by using the SAFS online reporting tool.

The Senior Fraud Investigator said that SAFS had met their target to deliver five training sessions during 2023/24 and that the Council’s also had access to an e-training learning module. 

The Senior Fraud Investigator said that SAFS had provided three Executive Reports to analyse specific fraud incidents, providing insight into how the fraud materialised and making specific recommendations to strengthen processes and controls to prevent reoccurrences. He said that SAFS also shared Fraud Risk Assessments and Fraud Alerts to partners to evaluate potential fraud risks and equip partners with intelligence to strengthen controls against emerging and current fraud threats and trends. 

The Chair thanked officers for their reports.

Councillor Nicholls asked if SAFS could reassure residents that they offered a good value for money service.

The SAFS Manager said that the Council needed the service and that privately this would cost considerably more. He drew Members attention to the statistics within the report and SAFS proactive as opposed to reactive approach.

Councillor Hart asked for clarification of the processing time for investigations, and how fast fraudulent financial transactions where managed.

The SAFS Manager said that in real terms a response to a referral was frequently made the same day, although a request for information might cause delays. He said that should SAFS be able to stop financial transactions instantly they will, adding that transactions for other partners have previously been frozen. 

Mr Sharman requested clarification on the number of days service which the Council was receiving from SAFS, and further information regarding the compliance approach.

The SAFS Manager said that the days which were being delivered were not recorded on the new case managements system for the first part of the year. He said that this should have been captured automatically when a member of SAFS staff was working on the case in the system. He said that this was purely a metric and that the service given to the Council and other partners was flexible to their needs.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property clarified that the Council did not ‘buy’ days of service from SAFS. He said that the number of days arose as an average when the service was formed.

The SAFS Manager said that compliance was used as a review of a household’s circumstances, which often resulted in a change. He said any change would then be reported to and corrected by the Council Tax Team. He said that should there be no response to a compliance review, or the review yield a larger than expected result this would be elevated into a referral for a SAFS investigator.

The SAFS Manager said that more detail regarding the first quarter of 2024 would be available in the next SAFS report. He said that to date eleven referrals had been received, two of which had originated from East Herts staff, that the service had nineteen live referrals and thirteen live investigations - with an estimated value of three hundred and three thousand pounds. He said that two cases had been closed and that six Council Tax and Housing Benefit reviews had resulted in overpayments of one hundred and eighty-four thousand pounds and future savings of seventeen thousand pounds.

RESOLVED – that the activity undertaken by the Shared Anti-Fraud Service (SAFS) to deliver the 2023/2024 Anti-Fraud Plan for the Council, and all Anti-fraud activity undertaken by Officers and SAFS to protect the Council be noted.