Terms & Conditions

[gary_t]

Hi All

I just thought that I would make you all aware of a scam that I came across for the first time today. 

The daughter claimed the housing element of Universal Credit and then, a couple of weeks later, her parents tried to claim Housing Benefit in respect of the same property.  In this particular case, additional names were added to the daughter’s tenancy agreement, but it could be done by sending different agreements to different agencies. 

It might be an idea to look at your assessment processes to see if anything else needs to be done to pick up this type of case.

Regards

Gary

[susan shadrake]

May I ask how this came to light? Only it would seem we might pick this up retrospectively through DWP reports but not at the time it happens, so I'm interested to know how this scam was identified in the first place. Many thanks 

[snowy1965]

Guess when we have non-deps on UC, ask to see award letter to see if Housing Costs are showing…

[gary_t]

Hi Susan

The daughter, who is the UC claimant, previously put in a claim for Council Tax Reduction, and she had claimed that on the basis of being the liable person for Council Tax due to being the person liable for rent. 

Gary

[peterdelamothe]

Interesting. Going to be easy to obtain tenancy agreements in various names when letting agent fees end.

[Author]

Posts