1.1 Glasgow City Council’s Anti Fraud and Corruption Policy sets out its wider commitment to reducing the occurrence of and protecting its services from fraud and corruption. This includes commitment to preventing and reducing Housing (HB) and Council Tax (CTB) Benefits fraud.
1.2 In accordance with corporate policy we will not tolerate Benefits fraud and will take appropriate action against those who commit it.
1.3 This policy (1) and strategy aims to systematically prevent, detect and eradicate HB and CTB Benefits fraud through building strong defences into our working practices, conducting high quality investigations when fraud is suspected and using all legal sanctions available, including prosecution, when fraud is uncovered.
1.4 Through this policy we will continuously develop effective and innovative ways to prevent, detect and take action against Benefits fraud, learning from intelligence to educate all of our HB and CTB stakeholders and engage their co-operation to help us to strengthen our Benefits defences.
1.5 To support this policy, we operate within the Department for Work and Pensions’ Verification Framework to reduce opportunity for fraud and error to occur. We employ a highly trained Counter-fraud Section to investigate and root out frauds that slip through our defences. All appropriate cases are referred to the Procurator Fiscal for prosecution or offered an alternative sanction.
1.6 Our Counter-fraud Section has an annual business plan and detailed guidelines and procedures to assist and ensure compliance with this policy. Performance Indicators are also in place to support continuous improvement in our counter-fraud performance.
(1) Legislative reference:
The Social Security Administration Act 1992. The Social Security Administration (Fraud) Act 1997. The Human Rights Act 1998. The Data Protection Act 1998. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act 2000. The Social Security Fraud Act 2001. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.