Housing and Council Tax Benefit fraud investigations

The Fraud Investigations Team consists of a small group of specialist staff who investigate potentially fraudulent Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claims.

Several members of the team are authorised by the Secretary of State under section 110A of the Social Security Act 1992 to carry out the duties of an "Authorised officer" on behalf of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. This is for the purposes of Part VI of the Social Security Administration Act 1992.

Authorised officers may exercise any of the powers conferred by sections 109B and 109C of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 - as far as they relate to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.

You can view details of the powers granted to Authorised Officers in the following file: Authorised Officer Powers(pdf, 8KB).

Our Policy Statement is also available in the following file: Fraud Policy Statement(pdf, 26KB).

Reporting a fraud

If you have any information about false claims within the borough, please contact the Investigations Team. See our fraud reporting page for further details.

More information

If you would like further information on benefit fraud, or you would like to report a fraud that may be taking place outside of our borough, please use the following link to the government's National Fraud Website at http://www.targetingfraud.gov.uk/.

For further help and advice, get in touch with the Housing Benefits Team.