FRAUD AND ERRORS WORTH MORE THAN £20M IN PUBLIC SECTOR

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: BBC

OCCUPATIONAL PENSIONS WERE PAID TO 179 DEAD PEOPLE

More than £20m in fraud and incorrect benefits and pensions payments have been identified in the public sector. Identified losses included 179 occupational pensions being paid to dead people and 405 incorrect benefits payments to public sector staff. The National Fraud Initiative collected information from 74 public bodies including councils, health boards and the Scottish Public Pensions Agency.

This is the third such initiative totalling about £58m in savings. Public spending watchdog Audit Scotland said £21.1m was saved by recovering cash which had been paid out as a result of fraud, overpayment or errors. Savings were also made by preventing money from being wrongly paid out. 

The report warned that although it had been successful in identifying considerable fraud and mistakes, most data was collected before the start of the recession. An economic downturn is commonly linked to a heightened risk of fraud and public bodies have been advised to remain vigilant.

Auditor General for Scotland Robert Black said: "Most people are honest and behave with integrity. Some do make genuine mistakes, but there is a small number who set out to cheat the public sector. "The National Fraud Initiative helps public bodies save and recover money by identifying cases where payments such as pensions and housing benefits are being wrongly paid to people, either through human error or incorrect information.

"It also helps them detect deliberate fraud."

Two wages

In one case, a council employee who had moved to another council was not taken off the payroll by the previous employer and ended up being paid by both local authorities for almost two years. The council was not informed of the error and the worker was incorrectly paid about £98,000. The local authority is trying to recover the money and a report has been sent to the procurator fiscal.

Councils have also stopped or reduced housing benefit payments to 1,447 public sector workers and pensioners. In 4,322 cases the single person's Council Tax discount was withdrawn for being invalid. And 4,340 blue badges for disabled people were cancelled because the holder was dead.

New powers

The auditors said 220 cases had resulted in sanctions being applied, such as 89 cases in which suspected frauds had been reported to the procurator fiscal. A total of 18 workers have either been dismissed or have resigned from their job. Audit Scotland will carry out its next anti-fraud exercise in October, by which time it is expected new powers will allow more collaboration between other UK agencies to detect cross-border fraud. The range of public sector bodies involved could also be extended and the next exercise could also detect crimes other than fraud.

READ WHAT: ERIC PICKLES ‘SECRETARY OF STATE’ SAYS ABOUT OVER-CHARGED COUNCIL TAX.

ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH COUNCIL TAX - CHECK HERE?