Benefit Fraud

Here, we tell you about the types of benefit fraud and how you can report it.

Types of Benefit Fraud

Benefit fraud is committed when a person claiming housing or council tax benefit/support doesn't tell us their full circumstances, or about a change in their circumstances whilst we are paying them benefit/council tax support

Benefit fraud is a crime  and our key focus is to prevent and detect fraud. We work closely with colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions and other agencies for many of our investigations.

If we suspect that someone has committed an offence we may interview them under caution, much in the same way the police do. We may prosecute when we believe we have proven benefit fraud, and we can also issue financial penalties where appropriate.

There are different types of benefit fraud. This could be where we are not told:

• The correct income of the household;
• The correct amount of savings and capital in the household;
• If a partner, or other adults (over 18 years old), live in the same property;
• If they own another property or land; or
• If they have moved (and continue to accept payments).
• The person pretends to rent a property which they actually own;
• The person pretends to be paying more rent than they actually are; or
• The landlord fails to tell us their tenant has moved and still accepts housing benefit payments for them.

Reporting a suspected fraud

Reporting benefit fraud couldn't be easier. To help us catch the benefits cheats, just contact the DWP National Benefit Fraud helpline on 0800 854 440 (textphone 0800 320 0512) or use the online form in the Links section.

It will help if you could give us as much information as possible. Some of the things you should try to tell us are:

• Name(s) of people in household
• Address
• Age(s)
• Description of person(s)
• Description of vehicle, including registration number
• Employer's name and address
• Time the person leaves for work and arrives home
• How long the person(s) has worked for the company