£9.5 Million Crackdown on Social Housing Cheats

Housing Minister Mark Prisk has announced a multi-million pound boost to council-led efforts to combat social housing fraud and ensure homes go to those who truly need them.  Fraudsters who live elsewhere and rent out their social home can cost the taxpayer as much as £900 million a year, while making thousands of pounds in profits from their so-called tenants.  Mr Prisk confirmed that 62 councils will benefit from a share of £9.5 million to bolster their activity to crack down on this behaviour – from specialist investigation teams to advanced data-matching.  The most successful tenancy teams leading this sort of targeted activity can recover more than 100 local homes a year – and can uncover even larger cases of benefit fraud. Read more on the Gov.uk website.