Council tenancy fraud ‘costs £2 billion a year’
Monday, 12 September 2011 10:21 AM
Social housing tenancy fraud is a much bigger problem than previously thought and is costing the taxpayer £2 billion a year, according to consultancy Experian.
The firm studied 125,000 lettings by 10 social landlords and found potential evidence of tenancy fraud such as unlawful subletting and submission of false information in 3 per cent of cases.
Extrapolated across the UK that would mean that more than 150,000 social homes are fraudulently occupied – three times more than the 50,000 estimated by the Audit Commission in 2009.
Experian says that if those homes had been allocated to people who are currently in temporary accommodation the taxpayer would save £18,000 per year per tenant, or £2 billion in total.
Its researchers looked at social housing tenants who are not currently occupying their property and living somewhere else and at credit activity by other people using the property as their address.
Nick Mothershaw, Experian's director of fraud and identity solutions, said: "Our initial research suggests that the level of social housing tenancy fraud in Britain could be much higher than previously estimated.
"It also demonstrates how more effective data matching can quickly provide a reliable indication of what could be illegal occupancy and subletting.”
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