Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted
Many local authorities lack capacity to effectively tackle Housing Benefit fraud
Conclusion
Local authorities are responsible for managing Housing Benefit claims in their areas and while some have the resources to check individual claims for fraud, many do not. DWP told us that while some local authorities are taking action on fraud, it is concerned that there are local authorities that are not able to, or have not been doing so.41 We have highlighted in other recent reports the limited capacity of local authorities to tackle fraud and stressed the need for central government to provide better support.42 The LGA reported to us that whilst local authorities can use powers under the Housing Benefit regulations to restrict unreasonable exempt accommodation rent increases in limited circumstances, the significant practical difficulties with doing so means that this rarely happens.43
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, setting a July 2024 target. It commits to sampling passported Housing Benefit claims for a May 2025 publication, developing plans to support local authorities in making quality fraud referrals, and evaluating existing initiatives' effectiveness in supported housing.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: July 2024 5.2 DWP understands the importance of tackling fraud and error across all benefits. However, Housing Benefit fraud, for example, benefit fraud (from undeclared income, changes in circumstance, or falsified information) needs to be distinguished from unscrupulous provider behaviour as described in the Committee’s report. The former is what DWP will act upon in this recommendation, the latter is covered under responses to recommendations 1 to 4 above. 5.3 DWP already provides LAs with funding to tackle Housing Benefit fraud and error in the main areas of loss, the top area being earnings and employment. DWP has two key initiatives in this regard; Housing Benefit Award Accuracy (HBAA) and Verify Earnings and Pensions (VEP). These initiatives provide LAs with funds to carry out full case reviews and action referrals from data matching against DWP’s benefits, tax credits and claimants' earnings information. 5.4 By July 2024 DWP will: • look to understand the total supported housing volumes in the Housing Benefit (HB) caseload following completion in March 2024 of the LA review exercise. This will help DWP to identify the supported housing HB claims for potential fraud and error activities; • DWP’s Performance Measurement Team (the experts who sample benefit claims to check for levels of fraud and error) have just begun its next programme of sampling for Housing Benefit cases that are passported from Universal Credit – i.e. Supported and Temporary cases, to feed into the May 2025 MVFE (Monetary Value of Fraud and Error) publication. DWP will be looking at the early Management Information (MI) from this sample, as the team works through it from November 2023 to October 2024, to see if it provides an indication of specific fraud and error types not currently addressed through its existing Housing Benefit fraud and error initiatives; • further develop plans to support LAs in making quality Housing Benefit fraud referrals for DWP to investigate; and • look at cases LAs have carried out under DWP’s key fraud and error initiatives to understand how effective they are on tackling fraud and error in supported housing HB claims. 5.5 All this will then determine what actions may be required to further support LAs, including consideration of how DWP will allocate existing funding provided to LAs in tackling fraud and error in the future.