Fraud

Fraud costs businesses and individuals in the UK an estimated £137 billion per year however some industry sources estimate this figure to be much higher; £190 billion per year. 

For the Public Sector as a whole this figure which include errors in public spending, is estimated to cost the taxpayer, £51.8 billion per year.  

There remains a real challenge to estimate the true cost of Cyber Crime to the UK economy - industry analyst’s estimate the crime to cost individuals and businesses £millions, if not £billions per year.

Fraud and cybercrime represent over 50% of crime.

Each pound lost through fraud, error and corruption reduces our ability as an authority to provide essential public services to our local community.

Fraud can be committed online, face to face, via e-mail, post and telephone. It covers a whole range of activities including:

• deception
• bribery
• false accounting
• false representation
• theft
• forgery
• extortion
• corruption
• collusion
• embezzlement and misappropriation

Fraud has a direct impact on:

• the level of council tax that we set,
• money available to spend on our schools,
• money available to spend on the NHS and;
• crucial front line services such as children’s & adult social care.

It is therefore vital that we work together to prevent, detect, investigate and deter all types of fraud affecting our services.

The main types of fraud affecting local authorities include:

• Housing tenancy
• Grants
• Council tax support relief
• Social care
• Insurance
• Blue Badge applications
• Payroll
• Procurement
• Public health
• Pensions
• Covid business grants
• Mandate