LOCAL AUTHORITY FRAUD A YEAR ON Alison Greenhill Director of Finance, Leicester City Council Treasurer, LLR Combined Fire Authority

What’s happened in the last year? Implementing DCLG Fraud bids (£750k) S F I S Continued grant reductions (-£85m since 2010, £55m further to go by 2020) 2

Corporate Fraud Team Hosting DCLG funded posts Maintains a core service Separated out HB officers Recruited specialisms 3

Corporate Investigations Team Structure Corporate Investigations Manager Senior Investigations Officer Corporate Investigations officers x5 Corporate Investigations Officers DCLG x4 Admin & Business Support Officers x2 Financial Investigator Benefits Investigations Managers Transferred to DWP 8x Benefits investigators Transferred to DWP 4

Post HB, what are they working on? Blue badge fraud Insurance claims Council tax discounts and reductions NNDR Staff fraud Schools fraud DCLG funded intelligence hub 5

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Timeline Leicester Montessori Ltd January 2014 name change to San Gabriel 13 Ltd May 2014 liquidated owing £30k NNDR April 2014 new company Leicester Montessori Schools Ltd February 2015 changed name to San Gabriel 15 Ltd May 2015 liquidated owing another £22k NNDR Total owed and unlikely to be paid £52k Now trading as? 8

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Emerging Issues School admission “frauds” 8636 school places for 2016/17 86% 1 st choice 8% 2 nd choice How many parents have “lied” about their address? So what? Is it a crime? reputational damage lack of accurate data re pupils best deal for children School place planning 12

Emerging Issues/ cont’d.. Adult Social Care cost avoidance deliberate manipulation of financial position Behaviour of care homes Funeral expenses 13

Working Together? DCLG bid agreement: City County Rutland 7 x districts Fire 14

INFORMATION SHARING! How to keep 9 lawyers in a job How not to trust How not to share How to make life difficult Despite assurances – ICO still contacted As at today 5 data sharing agreements signed 4 out of 12 organisations have shared data 280,000 data items of our own loaded 15

Corporate Investigations Team Structure Corporate Investigations Manager Senior Investigations Officer Corporate Investigations officers x5 Corporate Investigations Officers DCLG x4 Admin & Business Support Officers x2 Financial Investigator Benefits Investigations Managers Transferred to DWP 8x Benefits investigators Transferred to DWP 16

Wish lists Local authorities to trust each other HMRC to share data Banks to provide information under S29.3 of DPA Powers to be introduced under the Fraud Act 2006 to require organisations to provide information. 17

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