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CONTENTS
3 Background
3 Key Performance Figures
4 Analysis of Results
5 Whistleblowing
6 Counter Fraud Management
9 Appendix A: Counter Fraud Activity
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BACKGROUND
1 Fraud is a significant risk to the public sector. Fraud is the most common offence in the UK, accounting for 41% of all crime[1]. The National Audit Office estimates that fraud and error cost the taxpayer between £55 and £81 billion in 2023/24 and that only a fraction of this was detected[2]. Financial loss due to fraud can reduce a council’s ability to support public services and cause reputational damage.
2 Veritau provides a corporate fraud service to City of York Council which aims to prevent, detect and deter fraud and related criminality. We use qualified criminal investigators to support departments with fraud prevention, proactively identify issues through data matching exercises, and investigate suspected fraud. To deter fraud, offenders face a range of outcomes, including prosecution in the most serious cases.
3 The counter fraud team also plans and takes part in counter fraud campaigns (eg the National Fraud Initiative), undertakes fraud awareness activities with staff and the public, and maintains and updates the council’s counter fraud framework and associated policies.
4 This report provides the Audit and Governance Committee with a summary of counter fraud activity completed in 2024/25. It also details whistleblowing reports received and the types of concerns that have been reported.
KEY PERFORMANCE FIGURES
5 Veritau helped the council to achieve £245k in counter fraud savings in 2024/25, against an annual target of £200k.
6 The team received 428 referrals of suspected fraud during the year including reports from the public, council employees, external agencies, and issues identified through proactive exercises. One hundred and three investigations were completed in 2024/25 with successful outcomes achieved in 48% of cases[3].
7 Two council properties were recovered following investigations by the counter fraud team, two people accepted formal cautions, warnings were issued to 15 people, seven internal fraud investigations were completed, one Right to Buy application was stopped, one application for housing was stopped, and debts owed to the council were calculated in a further 13 cases.
8 In addition, the counter fraud team reviewed 123 applications made under the Right to Buy scheme and one application for school placement.
9 A detailed summary of performance can be found in appendix A, below.
ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
10 Veritau has an annual target of £200k to achieve in fraud related savings. These savings comprise the repayment of debt arising following investigative work, a maximum of one year future savings if an investigation has stopped an ongoing fraud that would otherwise have continued, and the prevention of any one-off payments that would have been made without our intervention, eg a Right to Buy discount. The chart below shows the areas where savings were achieved in 2024/25.
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11 Over the past six years Veritau has helped the council to achieve £1.8 million in counter fraud savings.[4]
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WHISTLEBLOWING
13 Four whistleblowing concerns were logged by Veritau in 2024/25 which related to concerns about working relationships, breach of the council’s code of conduct, theft, and poor procedures. Investigations into two of the concerns are still ongoing.
14 The figure below shows the number of whistleblowing reports recorded over the past six financial years – 18 in total.
15 The following figure details the categories of whistleblowing reports received over the same period.
COUNTER FRAUD MANAGEMENT
16 Veritau undertakes a range of non-investigative activity to support the development of counter fraud arrangements at the council.
17 The counter fraud team began a pilot compliance project in 2024/25. The project is designed to make an early intervention when information is received that indicates a member of the public has failed to report a change which would affect their entitlement to council tax support or a council tax discount, but the value involved makes it uneconomic to investigate as a potential fraud. In this situation a form is sent to the person in question asking them to provide an update to the council. No action, eg sanction, fine or prosecution, is taken against a member of the public who reports that their claim or discount is incorrect, but they are asked to repay any loss to the council. Engagement from the public has been positive. Savings for the council are currently small but growing as more referrals are put through the new system. A more detailed report will be provided in the new financial year.
18 The counter fraud team is an active participant in regional and national counter fraud groups. Veritau represented the council in May at a meeting with the Public Sector Fraud Authority leadership team and Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Minister of State (Cabinet Office) for the last government. The meeting focussed on sharing best practice and increased collaboration between local authorities and government to combat public sector fraud[5]. Veritau is also a member of the Yorkshire and Humber Counter Fraud Group and Tenancy Fraud Forum.
19 Veritau participated in and chaired a national Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally (FFCL) working group examining issues surrounding adult social care fraud. The group published a national report and toolkit designed to encourage and help councils to examine and address adult social care fraud[6].
20 Raising awareness of fraud amongst council employees and the public is an important function of the counter fraud team. Information about the council’s whistleblowing policy was published to all employees in June 2025. Cybercrime is also a high-risk area for the council. In October 2024, as part of Cyber Security Awareness Month, Veritau worked alongside the council’s communications team to raise awareness amongst all employees of the threat of cybercrime, how to spot it, and how to prevent it from happening.
21 Training has also been provided to the Procurement team, Home Upgrade Grants delivery team, Housing department, the Schools Admission team, Children’s Social Care team, Parking Enforcement team and Customer Services team. The training covered how the council is affected by fraud, the role of the counter fraud team, different fraud types, how council employees can identify other signs of fraud and report them, and how to spot false or forged documents.
22 In October 2024 the government announced changes to the Right to Buy scheme[7]. The maximum discount available was reduced from £102k to £24k for all applications made in Yorkshire and the Humber region after 21 November 2024. News of the reduction led to a significant increase in applications received by the council ahead of the discount reduction date. The counter fraud team undertakes verification checks on all Right to Buy applications to identify potential fraud and money laundering. The team worked closely with colleagues from Housing and Legal to ensure that the checks continued to be delivered quickly to meet the statutory time limits associated with the scheme. Verification checks were made on 123 applications in 2024/25; the majority of these (70%) were for applications submitted after the government’s announcement.
23 Misuse of blue badges remains an issue in York. The counter fraud team undertook two proactive days of action in 2024/25 – in May as part of a National day of action, and again in December as part of a regional exercise. The work was supported by the charity Disabled Motoring UK and promoted by the council’s communication team.
24 Veritau shares alerts on fraud threats identified by partners in the counter fraud community, including the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN). “Career polygamy” is currently a high profile topic nationally. This type of fraud occurs when someone illicitly works full time for multiple organisations at the same time. The team provides regular intelligence to the council’s Human Resources Department about individuals who are found to be polygamously working for other organisations.
25 The team maintains a fraud reporting telephone number and a dedicated email address[8]. Council employees and members of the public are encouraged to report any concerns they have about fraud affecting City of York Council.