BENEFIT cheats beware! That's the message from St Helens Council's anti-fraud squad whose mission is to save £1 million by the end of March in a major crackdown on housing benefit scams.

Since the team was set up in the council's Benefit Section in 1993, it has been increasingly successful in the battle against benefit fraud. Savings have grown from slightly more than £59,000 in the first year to almost £750,000 in 1997.

Successful bids for Department of Social Security challenge funding in 1996 and 1997 have also seen the team grow from an original two members to its current nine. These include not only officers dedicated to anti-fraud work, but also visiting officers and clerical support.

And the investment in extra resources has shown a significant pay-off in terms of increased weekly benefit savings being achieved. Savings made in the borough by the investigative team have risen dramatically: £236,722 in 1994/95; £241,591 (1995/96); £509,408 (1996/97); and almost £750,000 in 1997.

LYING

Estimates of the national scale of benefit fraud vary from £900 million to £2 billion a year. The complexity of the housing benefit scheme creates opportunities for fraud and abuse. Entitlements can change frequently which can tempt some claimants into concealing or lying about their circumstances. Last year, the government introduced its Fraud Act which introduced a number of measures to help local authorities combat fraudulent claims for social security benefits.

The three main ways of cheating the system are:

1. Claimants lying to get housing benefit in the first place.

2. Claimants who were entitled to housing benefit when they made their claim later failing to inform their local authority of changes which may reduce their entitlement.

3: Fraud by landlords or managing agents. Nationally more than half of the housing benefit paid to the private sector tenants is paid directly to landlords or managing agents. This provides opportunities to create false tenancies, or to continue to receive for people who have moved away.

Council leader Mike Doyle said: "The enormous efforts of our benefits anti-fraud team are paying off as can be seen from savings already achieved. Fraud is a massive nationwide problem and it is only right that we do all in our power to combat this."

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