| Already this financial year sanctions including court action and fines have been brought against 350 people, according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information.
This is the first year for which the number of inquiries conducted by the Fraud Investigation Service into suspected benefit thieves has been available for the two regions.
Benefit fraud is estimated to cost the UK economy upwards of £800 million a year.
Bimla Bhatoye, of the service, said, “Our strategy initiatives include a media campaign, cross checking information on benefit claims against other data sources and professionally-qualified investigators.
“The Fraud Investigation Service ensures that the quality and professionalism of investigations is maintained to consistently high standards by providing operational direction on all fraud-related matters.”
The service — rolled out from April 2006 — concentrates on complex and serious cases that are likely to result in a criminal sanction.
It investigates allegations of fraudulent claims of all Department of Work and Pensions benefits, such as people who are working but say they are unemployed.
According to the figures obtained by the Tele, there have been 51 cases in Tayside referred to the Procurator Fiscal for consideration of court action in the current financial year to date — up from 26 during 2007/08.
A further 95 cases have resulted in “other” sanctions, which include administrative penalties and cautions.
In Fife there have been 53 cases referred to the fiscal so far — up from 45 the previous year — and 151 dealt with by way of other action.
Our investigation established that there have been 720 investigations so far in 2008/09 in Tayside and 748 in Fife, the first time figures for both areas have been available following the introduction of a new management system.
However, bosses were unable to say how many illegally claimed payments had been recouped in the two regions, or which benefits were being particularly targeted.
The Department of Work and Pensions faced embarrassment last year when a woman appeared in court accused of fraudulently obtaining more than £20,000 incapacity benefit while working for them.
After admitting the offence, the woman received the maximum sentence of 300 hours’ community service. |
