30,000 fiddling benefits

Sep 16 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Mail

By Paul Dale

THIRTY thousand people in Birmingham have been caught fiddling council tax benefit claims, it was revealed today.

A financial probe has discovered that one in five claims for single person discounts was false.

Investigators discovered the fraudulent claims, involving people who claimed to be living on their own when they were really living with other people, as they trawled 160,000 discounts awarded by the council. Had the illegal claims been undetected, it would have deprived the authority of £14 million-worth of income.

Now, 10,000 single person discounts have already been cancelled, triggering an extra £1.25 million in payments for council coffers – and the worst offenders are set to be prosecuted.The remaining 20,000 cases are in the process of being dealt with.

Council leader Coun Mike Whitby said: “By reviewing our Council Tax database, we are