What future for fraud investigation

1. Lyn McDonald30 November 2011 What future for fraud investigation

2. Daily miracle Weekly embarrassment Benefits and Credits Facts and Figures • £600 Million paid out in Benefits • £11 Million paid out in Tax Credits • Around £3.3bn of benefit expenditure overpaid due to Fraud & Error • Around £1.3bn of benefit expenditure underpaid due to Error • Around £2.0bn of Tax Credits expenditure overpaid due to Error & Fraud • Around £0.4bn of Tax Credits expenditure underpaid due to Error • A further £1.5bn of Tax Credits expenditure overpaid due to differences between preliminary entitlement and final entitlement. • (Around 35% of that gets recovered.)

3. What are people hiding - • Earnings- classic working while claiming benefits • That they are living together- sometimes they even get two council houses and sublet one. • That they are in fact living abroad- or somewhere else – Both working age and pensioners living in Spain or Australia and claiming uk benefits such as housing benefit • They have hidden capital – they have unknown bank accounts or money in children's name • They have other income . For example subletting- private pension • The information to tackle this is known but is in too many places- that’s why we need a new way of working

4. What can do – a single INVESTIGATION • Get rid of information arbitrage - A single INVESTIGATION - • Then later a single investigation SERVICE • Information is king - Use same tools and technology that the fraudsters use - • know as much about them as they do about us • Prevent is better than cure- Stop fraud at start- use risk profiling and all known • data at time of claiming- and before payment. • Target our resources- • Have punishment to deter - new Welfare reform Bill - no broken windows

5. UC slide supports wider vision • Prevent- first line of attack is defence-IRIS as gatekeeper- pre payment • targeted approach depending on level of threat • Telephone call • face to face • letters • Serious Threat • All of which leads to either better trust levels or stopping them from entering the system now and in future. • 2. Discover & punish- second line of defence- IRIS as Detective- post payment • Hotline • Mobile Regional Taskforce • Targeted letters- groups/ individuals • telephone enquiries • investigations

6. What are we Doing? • Designing IRIS- using best in world data and analysis and reusing what already invested in- • Countering- Cyber fraud: Work closely with GCHQ to build threat intelligence as well as capability/response. • Testing The Mobile Regional Taskforce (MRT) & Use of targeted letters • Strengthening- Our current investigation ability by using credit reference agency information • Developing The Single Fraud Investigation capability. Combining the work of HMRC, DWP and LA investigators- to look at how this could be for all government • Introducing Tougher sanctions Welfare Reform Bill – going through Lords • Improving Debt recovery - The Cross-Government debt project, - introduced Debt controller

7. Design together- fight fraud together Phase 1 - design a capability for single INVESTIGATION Phase 2 - work out what we need for Universal Credit etc Phase 3 - What does a single investigation SERVICE look like and who does it serve _______________________________________________________________ Phase1- Need volunteers to hold workshops - internal to Local Government and later to bring in HMRC and FIS and others- NFA We are not all going to agree- but we are going to be heard and all be included. Because we are all in this together- as taxpayers and as practitioners. Every crack in our working relationship lets a fraudster in.

8. Lessons Learned • Piloting works - it gives you time to test things. • Refine and retest the ones that don’t work, they are as valuable as the ones which do. • Communication is key- what you think you said is not necessarily what I heard. • Each Department or Authority knows their patch and knows their clients- lets learn from each other

9. Contact • Lyn McDonald – Head of Fraud and Error Programme Email – Lyn.McDonald1@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK Telephone – 0207 9628 142 • John Fitzpatrick – SFIS Email – John.Fitzpatrick1@dwp.gsi.gov.uk Telephone - 07899 845 090 • Bill Parnham – IRIS Email – Bill.Parnham@dwp.gsi.gov.uk Telephone - 020 7449 5366