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Councils will receive new guidance on how to catch housing benefit cheats under tough government plans to stop illegal sub-letting. Housing minister, John Healey, last week announced plans for a co-ordinated crackdown on crafty tenants who set up multi-tenancy arrangements through a roll out of the National Fraud Initiative (NFI). It is believed the expanded NFI – under which Audit Commission officials will scour a centralised, secure online database of council and housing association information on local benefit claimants – could free up between 5,000 and 10,000 homes, and lead to millions of pounds of savings for public bodies. Councils will be able to apply for a share of a £4m pot to help them start their own anti-fraud initiatives, and will receive updated information on the best way to catch benefit cheats, such as establishing ‘crack squads' to investigate reports of fraud. Some housing experts have estimated that the number of housing benefit cheats in some inner-city ‘hotspots' could be as high as 5% of all claimants. Mr Healey said: ‘Tenancy cheats deny homes to thousands of people who really need them. This [initiative] could free-up thousands of properties for people who really need them.' And Steve Bundred, chief executive of the Audit Commission, added: ‘For every illegal tenancy there is a homeless tenant or family who stand to lose out. It also represents a waste of taxpayers' money.' The Audit Commission has overseen the NFI since it was launched as a small-scale regime in 1996. More than £500m of fraud and overpayments have been detected since the initiative was launched – an average of £41.5m each year.

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FINANCE

Crack squads to target 'crafty' sub-let cheats

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