Benefit Fraud
Anti Fraud Strategy
We pay out more than £30 million in Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.
Any benefit fraud diverts money from people in need and puts an additional financial burden on every taxpayer.
Help Us Fight Against Fraud
You can help us fight against fraud:
- We have a dedicated hotline where you can contact us, in the strictest of confidence, if you know of anyone who is falsely claiming benefit.
Anti Fraud Hotline
-
24-hour telephone line: (01795) 417714
You can talk to someone during normal office hours or simply leave a message for us to follow up.
Report Fraud Online
You can also report benefit fraud online through our Do It Online - Report Housing Benefit Fraud self service form.
Our Strategy
Councillors and Officers of Swale Borough Council are committed to combating benefit fraud and are developing a strategy to:
- STOP - Fraudulent claims from entering our systems
- FIND - Any fraudulent claims already in the system
- STOP - Payments going to people who are not entitled to it
- PUNISH - Those people who commit fraud
- RECOVER - Overpayments of benefit where appropriate
- DETER - People from trying to commit fraud
To help us beat fraud:
- We have established a dedicated Fraud Team
- We have a Prosecution Policy agreed by Councillors
- We participate in Data Matching Exercises
- We work closely with colleagues at the DWP Counter Fraud Investigation Service
- We are Verification Framework compliant
