Saturday, 30 August 2008
We have a duty to safeguard public funds. We want to encourage honesty and ensure people who are genuine get their full entitlement to benefits.
No. We are all victims of benefit fraud. Benefit cheats are stealing money from people who need it and they are stealing from every taxpayer in the country.
No. We know that most people who claim benefit are honest and we want to encourage you to claim all the benefits you are legally entitled to.
We know that sometimes people claiming benefits make genuine mistakes when they apply. Unless there is strong evidence of fraud we will give you the benefit of the doubt. But we have a responsibility to check claims thoroughly to prevent fraud taking place. This may mean that we have to visit you or write to you to check the details you have provided.
Because we have to make sure of our facts before we take any action, investigations can take some time to complete. The law says we have to keep information about people claiming benefit confidential so we cannot give you progress reports on a possible fraud.
Benefit fraud is a crime.
All benefit cheats have to pay us back the money they have stolen and we may also use other punishments. We may give an official Local Authority Caution that will be held on record by the Police. We may give an Administrative Penalty that is a fine that has to be paid in addition to paying back the overpayment.
In the worst cases we will prosecute.
A benefit fraud prosecution could result in a cheat being sent to prison for 7 years.
You can report a Benefit Cheat on-line by filling in the e-form: Report a Benefit Cheat.
If you prefer, you can report a cheat by phoning our Investigation Hotline on (01302) 735343. You can talk to a member of staff between 08.30 am and PM Monday to Friday. If you ring outside these hours you can leave a message on our answer phone.
The service is strictly confidential and you do not have to give your name.
