Checks on Sky bills help to push benefit fraud convictions up 40%

CONVICTIONS for benefit fraud have soared by 40 per cent in the last two years, it emerged last night.

The rise follows a decision to grant new powers to investigators, allowing them to access bank account records and credit reference checks to see if someone is earning while claiming sickness benefits.

Officials can also use Sky TV bills to establish if a woman in receipt of benefits as a single mother is wrongly claiming to be living alone – by discovering their partner has signed up to a sports package at the same address.

Ministers yesterday warned fraudsters that they will ‘have to pay back their illgotten gains’ as the Department for Work and Pensions revealed that the benefits fraud bill topped £215million last year.

Figures showed that 9,861 benefit cheats were convicted in 2011-12, up by 40 per cent on the 7,040 tally of 2009-2010, the last full year of the Labour government.

Over the same period, around 7,000 people a year received ‘administrative penalties’. Almost 16,000 were given cautions in 2011-12, up by around 900 on 2009-10.

The sharp rise in convictions is despite the number of cases referred to specialist teams remaining relatively stable.

The DWP said the increase in convictions was the result of a more aggressive stance and investigators having more powers.

Tackling welfare reform is one of the Government’s top policy priorities, and it gave specialist teams permission to access private spending records. Welfare reform minister Lord Freud said: ‘Benefit cheats who try to steal from taxpayers need to know our investigators are actively targeting them.

‘Our teams are actively going through benefit claims to spotlight potential cheats and where fraud is suspected we have the power to film suspects and raid people’s homes. These cheats can end up with criminal records and will have to pay back their ill-gotten gains.’

The number of cases probed by the Fraud Investigation Service was 166,073 in 2011-12, up from 150,365 two years earlier.

The majority of cases are passed to customer compliance teams, to allow the FIS to ‘focus on higher risk fraud’.

The DWP yesterday highlighted the latest person to be convicted of claiming benefits while working.

Michelle Taylor, 40, of Bloxwich, West Midlands, was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, after claiming more than £21,000 in benefits because she said she was unable to walk without support or a wheelchair.

Walsall magistrates heard that she was filmed walking to the gym after an anonymous tip-off to investigators.