Introduction

1 This plan sets out the activities that the counter fraud service delivers for the City of York Council.

2 A total of 983 days of counter fraud work has been agreed for 2021/22. A large proportion of this work will comprise reactive investigations which are determined by referrals received from officers and the public about suspected fraud. Other work will be undertaken in accordance with priorities determined by the Counter Fraud Risk Assessment and Counter Fraud Strategy Action Plan (presented to the Audit and Governance Committee in February).

2021/22 counter fraud plan

3 A summary of planned areas of work is set out in the table below.

Area	Activity
Counter Fraud General	Monitoring changes to regulations and guidance, review of counter fraud risks, and support to the council with the maintenance of the counter fraud framework. This will include completion of the annual counter fraud risk assessment and review of the counter fraud policy and strategy.
Proactive Work	This includes: · raising awareness of counter fraud issues and procedures for reporting suspected fraud - for example through training and provision of updates on fraud related issues · targeted proactive counter fraud work - for example through local and regional data matching exercises · support and advice on cases which may be appropriate for investigation and advice on appropriate measures to deter and prevent fraud.
Reactive Investigations	Investigation of suspected fraud affecting the council. This includes feedback on any changes needed to procedures to prevent fraud recurring.
Covid-19 response work	Undertaking pre and post assurance checks to ensure that Covid-19 grants are paid correctly. Investigating potential fraud highlighted through this work. Assisting the council to recover money lost to fraud through grants.
National Fraud Initiative (NFI)	Coordinating submission of data to the Cabinet Office for the NFI national fraud data matching programme and investigation of subsequent matches.
Fraud Liaison	Acting as a single point of contact for the Department for Work and Pensions, to provide data to support their housing benefit investigations.

Area

Activity

Counter Fraud General

Monitoring changes to regulations and guidance, review of counter fraud risks, and support to the council with the maintenance of the counter fraud framework. This will include completion of the annual counter fraud risk assessment and review of the counter fraud policy and strategy.

Proactive Work

This includes:

· raising awareness of counter fraud issues and procedures for reporting suspected fraud - for example through training and provision of updates on fraud related issues

· targeted proactive counter fraud work - for example through local and regional data matching exercises

· support and advice on cases which may be appropriate for investigation and advice on appropriate measures to deter and prevent fraud.

Reactive Investigations

Investigation of suspected fraud affecting the council. This includes feedback on any changes needed to procedures to prevent fraud recurring.

Covid-19 response work

Undertaking pre and post assurance checks to ensure that Covid-19 grants are paid correctly. Investigating potential fraud highlighted through this work. Assisting the council to recover money lost to fraud through grants.

National Fraud Initiative (NFI)

Coordinating submission of data to the Cabinet Office for the NFI national fraud data matching programme and investigation of subsequent matches.

Fraud Liaison

Acting as a single point of contact for the Department for Work and Pensions, to provide data to support their housing benefit investigations.