Social housing fraud costs taxpayer £2bn a year
Social housing tenancy fraud costs the British taxpayer more than £2 billion a year, a study has shown.
Consultancy Experian analysed 125,000 lettings by 10 social landlords and found potential tenancy fraud, such as illegal subletting, non-occupation, or submission of false information, applied to 3.1 per cent of social properties. If these figures are extrapolated across the UK there would be 157,077 social housing properties fraudulently occupied. This is three times the 50,000 figure estimated by the Audit Commission in 2009.
If all these properties were fraudently occupied and made available to people in temporary accommodation, the reduced cost to the taxpayer would be more than £2 billion a year, Experian estimated.
Nick Mothershaw, director of fraud and identity at Experian, said: ‘Our initial research suggests that the level of social housing tenancy fraud in Britain could be much higher than previously estimated. It also demonstrates how more effective data matching can quickly provide a reliable indication of what could be illegal occupancy and subletting.
‘Reducing social housing tenancy fraud will significantly reduce the cost of temporary accommodation which we estimate at more than £2 billion a year.’
