LAIOG: An open letter to the Government
Debbie Gibbons, LAIOG Administration Office, www.laiog.org 6th January 2011
To:
Iain Duncan Smith MP Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Francis Maude MP Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General
Lord Freud Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Welfare Reform)
Greg Clark MP Minister for Communities & Local Government
DWP Proposed Single Investigations Service
LAIOG (Local Authority Investigation Officers Group) is the national body that represents Local Authority investigators throughout the UK.
I am writing to you, in light of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) plan to centralise benefit delivery and create a Single Investigations Service. My intention is to ask you to consider the current role of Local Authorities in this area and re-evaluate the proposals put forward by the DWP.
LAIOG members are concerned that ministers may not fully appreciate the current Investigations Service delivered by Local Authorities, which detected 199,000 frauds valued at £135 million (Audit Commission Protecting the Public Purse 2010). Our members believe that by taking away this significant local service it will damage the effectiveness of the government’s ability to maintain a secure gateway to benefits as well as maintain the integrity of ongoing payments.
At present Local Authorities employ approx. 2,000 staff who carry out anti-fraud work. Our work covers the prevention and detection of fraud within the Housing Benefit scheme but we also look at a range of other public sector frauds, notably Social Housing fraud, made possible by our close links with registered social landlords.
DWP proposes the creation of a single investigations service to support and protect the new universal credit. I can see why officials might regard this as logical but would ask you to consider the following:
- Data collected by the DWP shows that Local Authorities are more successful at detecting fraud and error in locally delivered benefits than DWP are at nationally delivered benefits
- Local Authorities fund their investigations services over and above the level of administration grant received as it is considered hugely important to local citizens
- The costs involved of setting up this DWP Single Service; including IT System Interfaces, TUPE, Redundancy and administration will be significant and disproportionate to any achievable savings
- Contrary to the DWP’s belief, centralising investigation and recovery is not the most cost effective option
- There has not been a business case available for consultation
- Finally – the centralisation of Investigations and Universal Credit contradicts the Governments Localism Bill at a time where comparable services, including the Police, are to be made more accountable to the local people they serve.
LAIOG believes that the DWP could work in partnership with Local Authorities’ anti-fraud services, setting performance indicators and exploiting staff’s local knowledge. This would be an efficient and cost-effective alternative.
Local Authorities are entering an extremely difficult period with regard to the issues raised by the Spending Review and the resulting budget cuts. They accept and support the proposals for a simplified benefit system, but Local Authorities still have a duty to the taxpayers to protect public funds.
Yours sincerely
Debbie Gibbons
LAIOG National Executive
Download this letter as a PDF: LAIOG 6 Jan 2011 Open Letter to the Government