Types of Benefit
Fraud
The types of benefit fraud we come across are:
- Working and claiming -claimants who are
receiving housing/council tax benefit on the basis that they are
entitled to job seekers allowance/income support but are in fact
working.
- Non-disclosure of property, capital or income
- claimants who do not tell us about all their income, savings,
capital or property so that the amount of benefit they get is
higher than it should be.
- Non-disclosure of partner (living together as
man and wife, as civil partners and as same sex couples) -claimants
not telling us they have a partner, knowing that if they did they
would not be entitled to benefit.
- Non-declaration of non-dependants or
sub-tenants -claimants who do not tell us about other
adults living in the property so that they keep, or increase their
entitlement to benefit.
- False claims by homeowners - homeowners
falsely claim housing benefit, stating they are paying rent for the
property, inventing a fictitious landlord and using false rent
books and tenancy agreements.
- False address or failing to declare a change of
address -claimants who claim benefit for an address where
they do not live. These types of offences can involve the landlord
or other tenants, or occur when the claimant doesn't tell us that
the have moved out of a property.
- Landlord fraud -landlords who continue to
receive benefit paid direct to them when they know the claimant has
left the premises.
- Fictitious tenancies -a tenancy is created
between friends or family where the property would not normally be
rented in order to obtain benefit to which they are not
entitled.
