‘Errors and fraud cost council £240,000’
MORE THAN £240,000 could have been lost by Barnsley Council in the last year as a result of fraud and mistakes with payments, councillors have been told.
Most of the cash has been recovered because it had gone to organisations providing regular services, so future payments were adjusted to make the sums match up, but in cases where payments were made to the public for housing benefit, council tax support and discounts applied for single persons’ council tax, officials are still having to work to claw back the money.
Details submitted to the council’s audit committee reveal the biggest potential loss was from duplicate payments to creditors, which totalled more than £133,000, though that money has been recovered by making smaller future payments, with 21 errors spotted.
Another £72,000 went out in fees to private care homes, to cover the cost of looking after residents who had previously died, without the local authority being informed – something council staff regard as an administrative error in the way care companies deal with their paperwork, though it happened on 10 occasions.
In one case, more than £2,000 was paid to the ‘personal budget’ to pay for a resident’s care after they had died.
The rest of the cases could be more challenging for officials to resolve because they involve members of the public rather than organisations, with more than £19,000 found to have been paid out in housing benefit to nine recipients who should not have received the cash.
More than £10,000 was not collected from council tax bills due to people being allowed singleperson discounts, which reduce the bill by 25 per cent when there is only one adult living in the house. with another £2,100 going on Council Tax support which should not have been paid.