Agenda item

Presentation from KPMG

Ms S Brown, External Auditor, gave a presentation to Members.  She stated that the purpose of the briefing was to make Members aware of their roles and responsibilities in respect of fraud and to clarify what actions were being taken by management to detect and prevent fraud.  She advised that the Audit Commission completed a report on a regular basis and this was available on the internet.  She referred to the summaries provided which provided the national and local picture and explained how these could be interpreted.

In response to a question from Councillor N Smith, the Head of Finance advised that Members could report any suspected cases of fraud to the Senior Auditor or the Monitoring Officer.

Councillor N Smith referred to a specific case he was aware of locally in respect of housing benefit fraud.  The Head of Finance advised that there were slightly different arrangements in place as the Revenues and Benefits service was provided by the Leicestershire Partnership.  He invited Councillor N Smith to provide him with the information which he would refer on an investigate.

In response to questions from Councillors N Smith and G Jones, the Head of Finance explained that internal fraud consisted of various types of fraud, which could include petty theft.  He advised that the incidents referred to in the presentation related to recruitment issues which had been resolved prior to appointment by HR, and as such the incidents had no value associated with them.

Councillor G Jones asked if it would be useful for Ward Members to know how much was being paid in benefits in their ward to identify an increase in claims.  The Head of Finance advised that it was not possible to provide detailled information and it was not within the remit of Members to make such enquiries in their Wards.  He added that general information could be provided, however there may be a resource implication.

Councillor D Howe asked if the increase in social housing fraud was due to the bedroom tax.  Ms S Brown responded that she would not expect that this would relate specifically to bedroom tax, and was more likely related to cases of benefit fraud.  She added that there could be an impact but felt a particular link could not be demonstrated. The Head of Finance advised that the figures in the report were for the financial year 2012/13 and therefore prior to the underoccupancy reductions.

Councillor D Everitt referred to the graphs showing detection rates for housing benefit fraud and Council Tax discount fraud.  He asked if housing benefit was being concentrated upon at the expense of Council Tax discount fraud, as there had been no cases detected.  The Head of Finance explained that the largest Council Tax discount available was single person discount.  He advised that everyone receiving this discount had been written to last year and validation checks had been made.  He reported that the write out had been quite successful and had identified potential savings of £197,000.  He added that as the District Council only retained a percentage of the Council Tax collected, this represented a saving of £29,000.  He advised that these cases had not been classified as fraud and no prosecutions were made, however the write out had ensured that people were paying the correct amount.  He added that the classification had perhaps been generous.

Councillor D De Lacy commented that he did not see the use of the suggestions of identifying benefits claimed by area, as this would simply show that deprived areas were claiming more.  He added that this could have a detrimental effect.  He commented that the graphs could be interpreted in two ways as illustrated by the previous point made. 

Ms S Brown responded that contextually the graphs could be interpreted in many different ways and were intended to help Members understand the full picture.  She added that having specific details was also helpful.

Councillor T Neilson advised Members that statistics on benefits claims were available on the internet.