Local Authority Benefit Fraud Conference 2008

The changing framework for local authority benefit
fraud investigation

Thursday 6th November
Local Government House, Smith Square, Westminster SW1 

Local authority benefit fraud teams work within a changing framework of legislation, guidance and policy objectives. This one-day conference brings together the key issues for benefit fraud teams in 2008 and provides a forum for examining the implementation of recent legislation and the sharing of good practice in response to changes.

The conference will examine new ways of working in response to recent legislation including the use of financial investigators under the Criminal Justice Act and Proceeds of Crime Act and joint prosecutions under the Welfare Reform Act. In addition the conference will examine the proposed regulation changes around internet and telecommunications access under RIPA and the current view of the Office of the Data Commissioner on data exchange for fraud investigation purposes.

Local authority benefit fraud teams also need to consider revised ways of working and performance measurement. The conference will examine the introduction of Key Lines of Enquiry (KLoEs), the move towards larger corporate fraud teams and the introduction in anti-fraud work of new technology such as Voice Risk Analysis.


Conference Objectives

• To examine the key legislative, technological and good practise issues affecting local authority benefit fraud teams.

• To look at the introduction of financial investigation into local authority anti-fraud work and the use of accreditted financial investigators under the Criminal Justice Act and Proceeds of Crime Act.

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the first local authority led prosecutions for HB/CTB and DWP benefit cases following the Welfare Reform Act which came into force in April 2008.

• To provide an understanding of Key lines of Enquiry (KLoEs) as measures of performance and the impact of the introduction of KLoEs on local authority fraud teams.

• To examine the move within local authorities towards corporate fraud teams and the advantages and challenges of this model.

• To provide an update and clarification of the 2008/09 National Fraud Initiative (NFI) programme and an overview of the Audit Commission’s Code of Data Matching Practice 2008.

• To evaluate the impact of new technology in combating fraud, specifically the use of Voice Risk Analysis.

• To provide an insight into the framework for data handling, matching and exchange taking account of new advances in telecommunications and the August 2008 proposals to allow public bodies access to telecommunication and internet data under RIPA.